Equinor and Polenergia with a valid environmental decision for the Bałtyk 1 offshore wind farm project

Equinor and Polenergia have a valid environmental decision for the Bałtyk 1 offshore wind farm project, the companies said. As they added, the environmental decision will allow the project to take part in the offshore auction as early as 2025; the auction is important for assessing the profitability of the project.

As Equinor and Polenergia announced on Monday, the decision issued by the Regional Director of Environmental Protection (RDOŚ) in Gdansk on environmental conditions for the offshore wind farm Bałtyk 1 became final. The companies stressed that this is a “milestone” in the realisation of this investment.

They also pointed out that Bałtyk 1 is “getting ready” for the offshore auction in 2025. (Investment decisions on the construction of offshore wind farms depend, among other things, on the profitability of the project, i.e. the return on investment, which is to be made possible by the current support system for offshore wind farms. It assumes compensating producers for the negative balance, i.e. the difference between the market price of energy and the price which can allow producers to cover the costs of generating electricity at sea. The right to cover the negative balance may be granted through an auction, which will be won by the participant declaring, among other things, the lowest energy price – PAP).

Holding the auction this year will allow to maintain continuity between the first and second phase of offshore wind energy development, without generating unnecessary gaps, which will allow to maximally exploit the energy potential of the Polish sea,” said Polenergia CEO Adam Purwin. – Equally importantly, it will enable smooth integration of Polish companies into the farm construction process and increase local content. As the largest offshore wind farm currently under development in Poland, Bałtyk 1 plays a huge role in the realisation of this goal, Purwin assessed.

Bałtyk 1 has already obtained a permit to lay and maintain cables in the offshore section, as well as a grid connection agreement with the transmission system operator. The environmental decision opens the way for our project to the next stage, which is to participate in the auction in 2025. – indicated the president of the board of Equinor in Poland, Michał Jerzy Kołodziejczyk.

The companies also stressed that a number of Polish companies, including main contractors, have been contracted for the project. They added that the first meetings with contractors for the Bałtyk 1 farm will be held soon.

The Bałtyk 1 wind farm, with a capacity of up to 1560 MW, will be located 81 km from the coastline. Electricity will flow from it onshore to a connection point at the Krzemienica substation under construction, owned by the Polish Power Grid (PSE). The connection infrastructure will be located in the municipalities of Ustka and Redzikowo in the Pomeranian voivodeship.

The investors indicated that the proceedings to issue the environmental decision for the Bałtyk 1 project were preceded by studies and analyses aimed at collecting data for the project’s environmental impact report.

The report showed that the proposed technical and organisational solutions would effectively reduce the environmental impact of the Bałtyk 1 project, the companies said.

Polenergia and Equinor are preparing projects for three wind farms. Baltic 1, 2, 3, which will have a total capacity of up to 3,000 MW, which is expected to allow 4 million households to be supplied with green energy. The first energy from the two more advanced projects, Bałtyk 2 and Bałtyk 3, will flow in 2027. Both farms will have a total capacity of 1440 MW.

Polenergia is a Polish private energy group. Polenergia’s strategic project is the construction of wind farms in the Baltic Sea with a total capacity of up to 3 GW in cooperation with Norway’s Equinor. Polenergia’s shares have been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2005.

Equinor is an international energy company; the company is also a producer and supplier of natural gas to Europe, including Poland through Baltic Pipe. In Poland, Equinor focuses on developing an energy solutions offering that meets the needs of the Polish energy transition.

Source: PortalMorski.pl