Poland

Poland has started operating one of its first floating PV arrays on an artificial reservoir. The project features 110 bifacial modules floating on a platform supplied by Spain’s Isigenere.

A new Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP) study shows there is a strong economic case for owning and operating heat pumps in Poland, which was Europe’s fastest-growing market in 2021. Air-to-water heat pumps cost about €8,000 ($8,210) in the country, with lifetime operating costs estimated at €12,500.

The Polish government plans to allocate around 13 GW of new renewables capacity under a six-year scheme. It said 4.5 GW of solar will be assigned to projects above 1 MW in size, while another 4.5 GW of capacity will be assigned to smaller installations.

Poland hit 11 GW of installed PV capacity at the end of August. The distributed-generation PV segment continues to drive the growth of the Polish solar market, despite recent changes in legislation.

BloombergNEF (BNEF) has outlined a potential transition plan for a coal-fired power plant in Belchatow, Poland. It said that 5 GW of solar and 5.7 GW of wind could replace 80% of Belchatow’s lignite generation capacity by 2036, in an optimal scenario.

Goldbeck Solar has switched on a 204 MW solar park in Zwartowo, northern Poland. The project is the first phase of a 290 MW scheme that includes another 86 MW facility.

Lithuanian energy company Ignitis has purchased a 200 MW hybrid solar-wind project in Latvia. The installation is in the early stages of development, with construction scheduled to begin in 2025.

Alpha Solar currently has a solar project pipeline with a capacity of 3 GW in Poland.

The project is located 10 km from the Baltic Sea, where PGE is planning to build offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 3.5 GW.

Scientists in Poland have developed a compressed air energy storage technology using a thermal energy storage (TES) system built into a disused mine shaft. The system works without external heat sources, and utilizes an air compressor, a compressed air reservoir with a built-in thermal energy storage system, and an air expander.