Rozwój morskiej energetyki wiatrowej w Polsce

Abstract

Offshore wind energy (OWE) is today one of the fastest developing renewable energy technologies worldwide.By 2023, the globally installed offshore capacity has reached 63.2 GW of offshore generated energy including 30.6 GW in Europe and 39.4 GW in China (Renewable Capacity Statistics, 2023).European countries (Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, Spain and France) have been developing offshore windfarms and have connected over 5,785 turbines to the power grid.Plans have been made to increase the power capacity to 76 GW on the North Sea and 20 GW on the Baltic Sea by 2030 (Musial et al., 2022).The purpose of the article is to present the role of offshore wind energy in Poland as a strategic energy transformation drive to strengthen energy safety and provide a stimulus for the economic development of our country. Projects are currently being developed in Polish marine areas for the total capacity of 8.4 GW, including 5.9 GW in Development Stage I, and 2.5 GW in Stage II.Offshore wind farms will be developed solely in the Polish Economic Zone (PWSE) of the Baltic Sea in the area designated in Poland's Maritime Spatial Plan in the regions of Słupsk Bank, Central Bank and Oder Bank.Taking into account the OWE investment scale and its actual potential estimated at 33 GW, with an expected annual average energy production at approximately 130 TWh, Poland has an opportunity to become one of the major offshore centres in Europe. The Maritime Spatial Plan of the Polish Sea Areas and the Offshore Act indicate that the 21 marine areas projected for offshore windfarms, covering in total an area of 1808.2 km2, give an estimate of installed power capacity of 15.3 GW, exceeding considerably the present Assumptions of PEP2040 and the Offshore Act.The capacity should satisfy electric energy needs of approximately 60.6 TWh/per year, that is 1/3 of Poland's demand in 2021, which read 180.3 TWh. Offshore windfarms, from the Polish perspective, shall constitute a very important factor in the country's energy transformation process and will rectify the balance of the coal dominated electrical energy generation capacity.