POLISH RES ACT enacted

The President enacted the Polish RES law by signing it. Soon it will be publishes in the Journal of Laws. The publication will probably lead into a short term instalation boom for PV in Poland.

The feed-in tariffs for micro-installations up to 10kW remain at the level originally enacted by the Sejm: PLN 0.75/kWh (0,197/kWh) for PV up to 3kW and PLN 0.65/kWh (0.171 USD/kWh) for up to 10kW. The RES Act introduces a cap of 500 MWp + 300 MWp for these two feed-in tariffs.

The feed-in-tariff period is 15 years and starts on 01.01.2016. The defined cap might be hard to control since the feed-in tariffs will lead to a short boom for PV micro-installations from spring 2016. Very likely that the cap will be reached within the first year.

For commercial and utility size projects, dedicated auctions will take place. A feed-in-tariff of ca. 0.12 USD/kWh for a period of 15 years is under discussion as minimum tariff for projects winning the auctions.

Finally, one can conclude, five years of uncertainty and confusion regarding the RES regulation are history now. Only a few issues regarding the implementation of the RES Act are under discussion. The investors are looking forward to invest and create a short-term solar boom. However, the market will become very competitive since the big utility companies intend to serve a big portion of the expected solar demand in Poland.