According to information collected by the Institute for Renewable Energy, over a thousand photovoltaic projects have obtained connection conditions in the last six months. Most investors develop solar farm projects to participate in auctions.
The Institute for Renewable Energy informs that only in the first quarter of this year. distribution network operators were to issue conditions allowing connection of solar farms with a total capacity of 400 MW. This value corresponds to 1/4 of the total capacity of PV power plants that have so far been created in our country. This translates into unflagging interest of investors and developers in the development of solar farm projects.
The Institute estimates that about 500 MW solar projects below 1 MW are ready to take part in this year’s auction – including projects for which building permits were obtained after the December 2019 auction, but also PV projects, for which investors placed bids for energy sales at the December auction, but to no avail.
According to the government’s assumptions, this year’s wind and photovoltaic auctions for projects with a capacity of over 1 MW are forecast to purchase energy from wind farms with a capacity of up to 800 MW and from photovoltaic power plants with a capacity of 700 MW. In addition, in the basket for wind and PV for projects with a unit capacity of up to 1 MW, all support is to be won by photovoltaics and it is forecasted to guarantee sales of energy from PV power plants with a total maximum capacity of 800 MW.
According to the Institute for Renewable Energy, in the event of a coronavirus epidemic, the activity of the photovoltaic sector in Poland does not cease, as evidenced by continuous search for employees by companies in the industry. He estimates that with the defrosting of the economy and the increase in the number of administrative decisions issued already in this quarter, despite the epidemic, the competition of PV projects participating in the auctions will be similar as last year.