As the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Jadwiga Emilewicz announced – by the end of this year. work on the legislative correction of the so-called the distance act, limiting the development of onshore wind energy. The deputy prime minister admitted that the current regulations made it difficult to invest in onshore wind energy. On the other hand, we are facing a very serious transformation, pointing to the need to move away from coal-based energy.
Extensive consultations on the draft regulatory correction are foreseen, the aim of which is to reduce the statutory distance, currently amounting to ten times the height of the wind turbine mast. The condition is inclusion in spatial development plans. The second condition set by the deputy prime minister is the acceptance of local communities. “With prolonged local consultations. Only then will we be able to admit this type of investment, but we want this type of investment to appear in Poland.”
The deputy prime minister explained that according to the assumptions of the draft, the principle of ten times the height of the windmill’s mast would be maintained, and the new law would allow – under certain conditions – to reduce it to a certain level. At the same time, she added that an expert analysis is being prepared to help determine the minimum distance between the wind farm and buildings, which cannot be exceeded even if the local community agrees.
In force since 2016, the so-called the distance act introduced, among others the obligation to erect new turbines only on the basis of local plans and the minimum distance of the device from residential buildings of at least 10 times its total height, which in fact resulted in the ban on building windmills within a radius of about 2 km from houses. In addition, wind farms with their technical elements were classified as structures, which in turn resulted in an increase in the taxation of these investments.