Capacity-building workshop in Warsaw on grid development and infrastructure
4 Capacity-building workshops in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Poland engaged key policy-makers and experts, addressing specific topics related to offshore wind: regulatory set-up, environmental co-existence, grid, infrastructure and industrial development, and maritime spatial planning.
Instrat Foundation organised a workshop, held in Warsaw on 29 February 2024. The special focus was on grid, infrastructure and industrial development. It was attended by experts and practitioners working on offshore wind power investments in Poland and the CEE region, as well as civil society representatives. The speakers shared the opinion that the development of an offshore wind industry can greatly benefit local communities if citizens are actively involved in the process from the beginning and if the state pursues a pro-active industrial policy that supports the establishment of local supply chains and helps with reskilling workers to ensure a larger local content in the offshore wind industry.
Key take-aways from the discussions
- Offshore wind power will play a major part in the transformation of the Polish power system, but its implementation requires clear national strategic goals, stable regulatory and financial framework, as well as wide cross-sectoral cooperation.
- To fully capture the benefits of the offshore wind, we have to plan further expansion of electrical grids, taking into account advanced power transmission technologies such as high-voltage direct current lines, exploring the potential of locational pricing or power-to-X technologies such as green hydrogen, improving cross-border connection with neighboring friendly countries.
- Ambitious project pipeline envisioned by Polish 2030 and 2040 goals can support the development of various domestic-related industries with significant export potential. This is also an opportunity for smaller Polish ports, which will be used for maintenance of offshore wind farms for decades to come, providing much-needed economic activity in cities like Władysławowo or Ustka.
- European offshore wind value chain can improve our energy security and ensure stable conditions for ambitious build-up envisioned by the EU targets, but prioritizing Polish or European local content could increase the immediate investment costs. Careful regulatory intervention, based on multifactorial assessment, is thus needed both on the European and national level.