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Wind farms in Poland – new investment prospects

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​Jakub Plebański and Sara Lipner

17 October 2024


Poland wants to unlock the potential of wind energy – the draft new laws make spatial planning for wind farms more flexible. 

The removal of restrictions on the distance of wind turbines from buildings is expected to upsize RES​ projects, which reflects the government’s new, ambitious plans for renewable energy growth. The anticipated expansion of wind power until 2030 creates big opportunities for investors.

Wind Farm Investments Act – draft amendm​​ents


A bill amending the Wind Farm Investments Act (the Wind Farms Act) and some other acts was published on the website of the Government Legislation Centre on 25 September 2024.

No more 10H r​​ule


Crucially, the bill revokes the stringent 10H rule according to which the minimum distance between wind turbines and residential buildings must be ten times the height of the turbine, unless the local spatial development plan stipulates another distance not shorter than 700 metres. The revised Wind Farms Act sets the minimum distance between a wind farm and residential buildings at 500 metres, which is a major step towards investors, compared to the current rules.

Nature protection a​​reas


Another change concerns location of wind farms near nature protection areas, i.e. national parks, nature reserves and Natura 2000 Areas. At present, a wind farm must be located no closer to a national park than ten times its total height. The amended legislation would allow building wind farms 1,500 metres from national parts. When it comes to bat special areas of conservation and Natura 2000 Areas, the distance would be minimum 500 metres.

Integrated investment ​plan


Other major propositions of the bill include the option to locate a wind farm on the basis of a special kind of local spatial development plan called ‘integrated investment plan’ introduced to the Spatial Planning and Development Act last year. 

An integrated investment plan is developed for a specific project and accounts for both the main objective of the investment as well as auxiliary facilities. This makes it more flexible and tailored for the particular wind farm construction project. Without doubt, the simplified planning procedure is designed to speed up the processing of planning documentation of wind farm projects.

In order to harmonise planning procedures, the lawmakers have suggested moving the legislation concerning the consultation requirements applicable to the adoption of local spatial development plans from the Wind Farm Investments Act to the Spatial Planning and Development Act.

Expected outco​​me


The bill amending the Wind Farm Investments Act is expected to unlock additional space for onshore windfarm projects in Poland.

As a reminder, the volume of onshore windfarm projects has rapidly declined in Poland since 2016. This was the aftermath of the major cut in the available investment area – the lawmakers set the minimum distance between windfarms and residential buildings at ten times the windfarm height in 2016. That requirement was relaxed in 2023 by allowing the construction of wind farms within 700 meters of residential buildings whenever the local spatial development plan explicitly allows this.

The chart below compares the estimated available area for construction of wind farms: under the 10H rule of 2016, following the 2023 amendment to the legislation, and under the new rule of 500 meters as proposed by the Minister of Climate and Environment in 2024.

onshore wind energy investment

Development of Polish onshore wind power mark​​et


The bill discussed here fits the broader trend of accelerating development of onshore wind power in Poland.

Noteworthy is the Ministry of Climate and Environment's September announcement of parameters of the updated government energy strategy to be included the National Action Plan for Energy and Climate 2030. The new ministerial proposals increase the share of green energy in the end gross energy consumption by 2030 to 32.6% compared to the originally planned 23%. 

Particularly ambitious are the plans for increased onshore wind power capacity in 2030. In the original plan, published back in 2019, the Ministry of Climate and Environment expected Poland to reach 9.6 GW of power by 2030. This objective is already obsolete as the total power of Polish wind farms exceeded 10 GW in 2024. The updated government energy strategy posits the total output of Polish wind farms at 19 GW by 2030, which suggests a major investment opportunity.

capacity of onshore wind farms in Poland

Summa​ry


As we can see, the Polish wind power industry has been very dynamic recently. The government wants it to play a major role in decarbonisation of Poland by 2030, lifting some burden off solar power which has become the main driver of the Polish renewable energy growth over the last few years. Once the changes come into force, Poland stands a chance of becoming one of the most attractive wind farm markets in Europe.

If you have any questions or doubts about the wind power in Poland, you are welcome to contact us​.

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Jakub Plebański

Senior Lawyer (Poland)

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