In the past three months, Poland has been the most persistent in confronting Russia and supporting Ukraine. It is also the only EU country that plans to completely stop buying Russian natural gas from next year.
Poland is very dependent on the natural gas imported from Russia. It needs about 21 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year, of which Russia provides 55%;Moreover, Poland is also the most coal dependent country in the EU. In 2021, Poland's coal power generation accounted for 70.8%, and it is heavily dependent on Russian coal and oil. With such dependence on Russian energy, where does Poland have the backing to fight against Russian natural gas?
Global PV learned that in additional to the upcoming opening of a new natural gas transmission pipeline from mainland Norway through Denmark in 2023, the other key that make Poland energy independent is photovoltaic.
From January to May this year, Poland has achieved about 2.5GW of new PV installed capacity, with a cumulative PV installed capacity of more than 10GW. It is expected that 4.5GW of new PV installed capacity will be added throughout the year, with a cumulative installed capacity of more than 12GW.
In the past five years, solar PV has become the main driving force for the development of renewable energy in Poland.In 2018, the newly added PV installed capacity in Poland ranked eighth among the 27 EU countries, fifth in 2019, and fourth in 2020 and 2021.
According to the polish PV market report in 2022 issued by the Institute for Renewable Energy, Poland is expected to achieve 20GW of photovoltaic installed capacity in 2025，and the cumulative installed capacity will be 28.5 GW by 2030. The report describes the past 10 years as "the golden decade of PV in Poland".
IEO predicts that due to the rapid growth of PV power station capacity, PV has become the technology with the highest installed capacity of renewable energy in Poland and will maintain growth in the next few years. The Polish government has taken solar energy as the main driving force for the development of renewable energy in Poland to ensure energy security in Poland and provide stable energy supply for end users.
