The power of photovoltaics in Poland doubled during the year and exceeded 10.2 GW at the end of May. The share of photovoltaic panels in energy supply already exceeded 7% in May, according to data analysed by WysokieNapiecie.pl. Poland’s Energy Policy, adopted by the government a year ago, assumed that such a capacity would be reached in 20 years.

Exactly 10221.6 MW was the capacity of photovoltaics in Poland at the end of May 2022. Most of this (7797.36 MW) was installed by more than one million Polish families on the roofs of their homes. There were 24,198 new PV installations. Their total capacity was 251.02 MW, which accounted for 67% of the capacity of all new RES installations, according to data published by the Energy Market Agency.

Poland’s Energy Policy 2040, adopted in February 2021, estimates that photovoltaic sources will reach economic and technical maturity after 2022. In 2030, the installed capacity could be around 5-7 GW in total in micro and large installations, while in 2040 as much as 10-16 GW”. Almost 20 years earlier, Poland has thus reached the former milestone.

The Renewable Energy Institute estimates that due to rising electricity prices and as a result of the RES auctions that have already been decided, Poland will exceed 20 GW of installed solar capacity in the next three years, i.e. by 2025.

The portal WysokieNapiecie.pl points out that photovoltaics allows saving huge amounts of carbon. Only from January to May, thanks to photovoltaics, Poles burned about 1.5 million tonnes less coal in Poland, and by the end of the year, they will have saved 4-5 million tonnes this way.

The largest photovoltaic farm in Poland with a capacity of 70 MWp is located in Brudzew. It was built for the ZE PAK GROUP by ESOLEO and consists of 155,554 photovoltaic modules of 455 Wp each and occupies an area of approximately 100 ha.

Adrian Andrzejewski