Poland generated 40% of its electricity from wind – a new record – on 31 December. The figure could have been higher were it not for the fact that the grid operator had ordered wind farms to reduce output as the system was unable to use or store surplus energy being produced.
Figures from the European Network of Transmission System Operators, reported by Business Insider Polska, show that 39.8% of Poland’s electricity was generated from wind that day, beating the previous high of 33.9% set on 6 February 2022.
In absolute terms, wind produced 152.9 GWh of electricity on New Year’s Eve, the second-best daily result in history. The record was set on 21 February, when wind produced 153.3 GWh.
However, across 2022 as a whole, wind power accounted for only 11.5% of Poland’s electricity mix, with a further 5.7% coming from solar, notes Business Insider. Meanwhile, 72.8% came from coal – by far the highest share in Europe – and 5.6% from gas.
By comparison, in 2021 coal generated 70.8% of Poland’s electricity and renewables a combined 16.9% (around half of which was from wind).
The wind figures for 31 December would have been higher had the grid operator, Polish Power System (PSE), not obliged wind farms to reduce capacity between 30 December and 1 January.
That was because too much electricity was being produced in relation to demand, which is lower during the holiday period, and coal-fired power stations cannot be switched off completely.
Wind farms are entitled to compensation for the reduction of production at the behest of the grid operator. The industry estimates that in a few years’ time such compensation may even reach several hundred million zloty per year, reports Business Insider.
Poland’s onshore wind capacity was growing at one of the fastest rates in Europe until 2015. However, the following year new regulations were introduced that made it very difficult to build new turbines on land.
The government is now hoping to under those regulations – which it had itself previously introduced – while state energy firms are developing plans for Poland’s first offshore wind farms on its Baltic coast.
Main photo credit: Tom Swinnen / Pexels
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
