Polish lawmakers' remedies to wind turbine act dash sector hopes

The Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, amended on Wednesday the wind turbine act, adopting a 700-metre distance of wind turbines from housing, a revision which is not approved by the sector.

The purpose of the amendment was to ease the 10H act for locating wind farms at a distance 10 times the height of the turbines. Revising the rule is one of the 37 milestones that Poland needs to complete under the Recovery and Resilience Facility to unlock funds from the National Recovery Plan.

The Sejm was supposed to unblock wind investments in Poland by introducing a minimum distance between turbines and houses at the level of 500 meters -- a revision widely consulted and approved by the central government, the local authorities and the sector.

The ruling PiS party pushed through an amendment increasing the minimum distance between turbines and residential buildings to 700 metres from 500 metres. The law was adopted with 214 votes for, 209 abstentions and 27 votes against, Sejm documents show.

The Polish Wind Energy Association (PWEA) said earlier that an amendment envisaging a 700-metre setback distance will further block the development of onshore wind energy in Poland. According to its analysis, the liberalisation to 500 metres compared with the 700-metre revision allows for a 25-fold increase in the availability of land for wind projects.

The amendment to the act will now be submitted for consideration to the Senat, the upper house of the Polish parliament.

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