1. A first draft of the Council of Ministers regulation on the maximum volume and value of electric energy from renewable energy sources that may be sold in auctions in 2020 ("Budget regulation") was published on 9 October 2019.
  2. The Budget Regulation includes budgets for the RES auction in 2020. Currently, the budgets are subject to the opinion of stakeholders and arrangements with other ministers. After all such opinions are collected, the regulation can be adopted by Council of Ministers. By law the Government should issue the Budget Regulation by the end of October, but this might be difficult to achieve due to general elections which took place on Sunday (13 October 2019). The draft Regulation, once approved, will take effect 14 days after it is published in Journal of Law.
  3. Following the reasoning of this regulation, the budget will allow deployment of small PV projects with total capacity up to 500 MW and large PV projects with total capacity up to 1000 MW. This means that the Government expects that PV will dominate in baskets for large PV and onshore wind in 2020. This may well happen, as it is estimated that most of the large wind projects in the pipeline will secure support in auctions in 2019.
  4. The Government's expectation in terms of RES deployment resulting from the auction in 2020 is presented in the table below:
  5. Energy source Small Large
    Solar energy
    500 MW 1000 MW
    Hydropower 10 MW 20 MW
    Agricultural biogas 20 MW N/A
    Biogas from landfill and sewage treatment systems
    10 MW N/A
    Biomass in dedicated biomass combustion systems N/A 100 MW
  6. Below we present the budgets and volumes for particular installations in 2019 and 2020. According to the Act on Renewable Energy Sources ("RES Act") there are five "baskets" for installations, sorted by, among others, technology criteria. Additionally, separate auctions are organised for installations which started generating electricity before 30 June 2016 and wish to migrate to the auction system ("Existing Installations") and installations which will start generating electricity after the auction ("New Installations"). Furthermore, projects are also distinguished between installations with total capacity installed up to 1 MW ("Small Installations") and installations with total capacity installed over 1 MW ("Large Installations").

     

    New Installations

    Basket 2019 2020
    Small Installations Large Installations Small Installations Large Installations
    Biogas other than agricultural, hybrid systems, installations of thermal combustion 0 14 910 000 MWh,
    5 577 600 000 PLN
    375 000 MWh,
    166 875 000 PLN
    10 950 000 MWh,
    5 182 500 000 PLN
    Hydropower, bioliquids, geothermal energy, offshore wind energy 140 400 MWh,
    71 280 000 PLN
    594 000 MWh
    285 120 000 PLN
    540 000 MWh,
    270 000 000 PLN
    1 080 000 MWh,
    518 400 000 PLN
    Agricultural biogas 1 341 821 MWh,
    939 274 880 PLN
    1 170 000 MWh,
    678 600 000 PLN
    0 1 800 000 MWh,
    1 152 000 000 PLN
    Onshore wind energy
    Solar radiation energy
    11 445 000 MWh,
    4 213 650 000 PLN
    113 970 000 MWh,
    32 000 000 PLN
    7 350 000 MWh,
    2 829 750 000 PLN
    14 700 000 MWh,
    5 365 500 000 PLN
    Hybrid RES installation 0 0 0 0

    Existing Installations

    Basket 2019 2020
    Small Installations Large Installations Small Installations Large Installations
    Biogas other than agricultural, hybrid systems, installations of thermal combustion 1 120 000 MWh,
    694 400 000 PLN
    34 000 000 MWh,
    20 740 000 000 PLN
    0 21 000 000 MWh
    9 870 000 000 PLN
    Hydropower, bioliquids, geothermal energy, offshore wind energy 1 475 211 MWh,
    71 280 000 PLN
    594 000 MWh,
    811 366 050 PLN
    0 0
    Agricultural biogas 1 149 296 MWh,
    838 986 080 PLN
    3 433 219 MWh,
    2 197 260 000 PLN
    0 0
    Onshore wind energy
    Solar radiation energy
    0 0 0 0
    Hybrid RES installation 0 0 0 0

Dentons is the world's first polycentric global law firm. A top 20 firm on the Acritas 2015 Global Elite Brand Index, the Firm is committed to challenging the status quo in delivering consistent and uncompromising quality and value in new and inventive ways. Driven to provide clients a competitive edge, and connected to the communities where its clients want to do business, Dentons knows that understanding local cultures is crucial to successfully completing a deal, resolving a dispute or solving a business challenge. Now the world's largest law firm, Dentons' global team builds agile, tailored solutions to meet the local, national and global needs of private and public clients of any size in more than 125 locations serving 50-plus countries. www.dentons.com.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.