Wind energy is a development. At the same time, this is confirmed by the experience of countries where offshore and onshore wind farms have been built for many years. Thanks to them it is possible not only to obtain clean energy, but also to create many new jobs or generate additional revenue for the state or local government budget. In turn, for investors, onshore and offshore is a business opportunity. How to take advantage of this potential? What are the forecasts for Poland in this area?
Wind farms – what is their importance for the power industry?
According to available data, at the end of 2023, onshore wind farms had about 9.63 GW installed. However, in the perspective of the next six years, i.e. until 2030, onshore wind farms could produce about 12.7-18 GW of energy. To this should be added the installed capacity of wind farms in the Baltic Sea. The first such installation is expected to begin operation in 2026, and in 2030 we expect about 8.6 GW of power from offshore wind farms.
Wind energy is always a major investment, generating new jobs – and in areas seemingly far from the installation itself. Forecasts predict that the rapid development of onshore wind power could bring – over the next six years – an increase of approx. 50-97 thousand new jobs and, among other things, between 490 and as much as 935 million zlotys in revenues to local government budgets. Offshore wind, on the other hand, should generate about 63 thousand new jobs; nearly PLN 100 billion in investment value and about PLN 14 billion in tax revenues.
How to use the potential of wind farms?
In view of the above, it is clear – and this is also clearly confirmed by the experience of other European Union countries – that there is huge potential in offshore and onshore wind energy. Taking advantage of it requires the courage of investors – for whom both onshore and offshore is a chance to make a lot of money – and a friendly legislative and administrative environment. Unfortunately, we have a lot of problems with the latter in Poland. However, they can be overcome by taking a professional approach to preparing and carrying out an investment in a wind farm. This is a basic condition that every investor should be aware of.