Polish wind farm projects are expected to cost some zł.80 billion with biogas plant construction projects valued at a further zł.9 billion.

The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, an EU program, will allocate zł.500 million in loans and subsidies to agricultural biogas plant development over the next three years. Unlike other EU funds, however, it does not set a top value for the subsidies, meaning it has met with a lot of interest. Polish businesses are now planning ever larger investments in renewable energy.

According to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita’s sources, Szczytno in Poland’s north east will be home to Europe’s second largest biogas plant. The plant will produce 13.7 megawatts of energy and its construction will cost some zł.200 million.

“The sale of green energy will ensure an additional source of income, because the costs of agricultural production are ever greater,” egg producer Agronex’s CEO Zbigniew Ronkiewicz said.

However, only projects worth in excess of zł.10 million are eligible for subsidies from the funds; smaller projects will have to turn to voivodship funds, which have a total pool of zł.560 million to loan.

Just this year, 103 biogas plant projects, worth zł.2.4 billion, have applied for subsidies. According to the Institute of Renewable Energy (IEO) there are in fact 300 such projects in the pipeline, worth a total of zł.9 billion.

“The Polish biogas market has potential comparable to Germany’s where currently more than 4,000 biogas plants are operational, mostly small ones. The noticeable trend in Poland is the planning of large installations with an average power of 1.6 megawatts,” Przemysław Mroczkowski of the IEO said.

Poland AM