Polish energy company PGE Group has secured environmental permit for two new offshore wind farm projects, namely the Baltica 2 and Baltica 3, with a total capacity of up to 2.5 GW. This comes in line with the company’s ambitious Baltic wind farm construction program, as part of its low-carbon transformation.
On 24 January 2020, the Regional Director of Environmental Protection in Gdańsk issued a decision on environmental conditions for the two offshore wind farm projects owned by PGE.
The decision gives PGE a green light to start work on a technical project for both farms, marking another step to the implementation of its Offshore Program.
Baltica 2 will have a capacity of 1498 MW and Baltica 3 a capacity of 1045 MW.
The PGE GK Offshore Program, assuming the construction of offshore wind farms with a capacity of up to 2.5 GW, is expected to reduce about 7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, while the electricity produced will be able to power up to 4 million households.
On 20 December 2019, PGE and Ørsted signed a preliminary agreement describing the framework for the acquisition of a 50% stake in the two offshore wind farms.
The first electricity produced from farms, located about 30 km north of the shoreline at the height of Ustka and Łeba in the Pomeranian Voivodeship, is expected in 2026.
Through diversification of energy sources and our investments, among others in offshore wind farms, Poland is able to successively reduce the share of fossil fuels in the national energy mix. This is in line with the expectations of the Polish government. Baltica 2 and 3 offshore wind farms are key elements of the change process that is taking place in the PGE Group, but also an important contribution to the energy transformation nationwide,
…says Henryk Baranowski, president of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna.
By 2030, offshore wind sector in Poland is expected to generate an estimated 77,000 jobs and 14.1 billion Euros ($15.7 billion) for the economy.
