The Ministry of Climate has forwarded to the next inter-ministerial arrangements a draft act on support for offshore wind energy. The most important change concerns the increase from 4.6 to 5.9 GW of offshore farm capacity, which can be supported without auction. According to the letter directing the project to be agreed, comments may be submitted until July 14 this year.
The project shows that in the first phase of the support system operation, for farms with a total installed capacity of 5.9 GW, support will be granted by way of an administrative decision by the President of the Energy Regulatory Office. Access to this system ends on June 30, 2021, which results from EU regulations on state aid. In the previous version of the project, the power limit was 4.6 GW. In addition, such a mechanism will still require EC approval.
The amount of the price, which is the basis for settling the negative balance in the first phase of the support system, will be determined in the regulation issued by the minister competent for energy based on macroeconomic indicators. In the following years, support will already be granted in the form of competitive auctions. Due to the amount of investment, unlike other RES technologies, the maximum support period for offshore farms will be 25 years. This corresponds to the average life cycle of an offshore wind farm project – it is indicated in the justification.
Due to the different construction process at sea, the possibility of commissioning and entering the offshore wind farm support system in stages has been introduced. However, the maximum support period is counted from the date the first energy was generated from the farm, not from its individual stages. The project provides that the system will not be allowed to produce and process electricity produced earlier than 72 months before the date of the first generation of energy , or those that were previously depreciated within the meaning of the accounting regulations by any entity.
The act is to include a special tax on offshore wind farms because they are not subject to real estate tax. The tax base will be the installed capacity of a given farm, the tax rate will be the product of this power in MW and the amount of 23 thousand PLN.