The Polish Energy Regulatory (URE) has released a report stating that the 2023 Polish renewable energy auctions are once again under-subscribed.

Less than 6 TWh of the 88 TWh of previously released renewable energy auction contracts were ultimately awarded, with photovoltaics winning more than 98 per cent of the 200 projects selected.

Despite the government allocating a budget of around PLN40.8bn ($10.2bn) for the auction, the 618MW of new renewable energy capacity that was eventually selected was worth less than PLN2bn ($500m). Of this, 594MW was awarded to photovoltaics (PV), while 24.5MW was awarded to onshore wind. all of the projects under 1MW were awarded to solar projects, totalling 123MW, while projects over 1MW were awarded 471MW of PV and 24.5MW of onshore wind, respectively.

Although the government had planned to conduct seven auctions this year, the remaining five were cancelled due to an insufficient number of auction offers related to hydropower, biogas and biomass.

Commenting on the reasons for the under-subscription of the current round of auctions, URE president Rafal Gawin said, “The results of the November auctions confirm that, as expected, long-term CPPA contracts (Corporate Power Purchase Agreements) are becoming an attractive alternative to the auction support system.”

Since Poland first started holding such auctions in 2016, nearly 7.4GW of PV, 5.4GW of wind and just over 130MW of other renewable technologies have been awarded, with a total value of nearly PLN67bn.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)