On 4 November 2025, the President of the Republic of Poland signed the Act of 9 October 2025 amending the Act on Promoting Electricity Generation in Offshore Wind Farms and Certain Other Acts. The aim of the amendments is to streamline the implementation of offshore wind investments and to introduce numerous solutions optimizing the development of renewable energy sources in line with the objectives of reducing emissions and increasing energy security.

Key changes

• Introduction of renewables acceleration areas (obszary przyspieszonego rozwoju OZE – OPRO) with the greatest potential for renewable energy installations
• New solutions in the auction support system
• Practical facilitations for renewable energy producers

Renewables acceleration areas (OPRO)

• In connection with the implementation of Directive (EU) 2023/2413 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 (RED III), areas with the greatest potential for renewable energy installations will be mapped. Renewable energy potential maps will be developed and published by the minister responsible for climate.
• Under the new Article 160f of the RES Act, it will be possible to site OPROs within the boundaries of the areas covered by the renewable energy potential maps. OPROs will be established within voivodship boundaries separately for each type of RES.
• Siting RES investments in OPROs will be highly beneficial for project implementation efficiency, as it will not generally be necessary to obtain an environmental decision or carry out an assessment of the project's impact on Natura 2000 areas.
• In order to prevent RES installations having an adverse impact on particularly vulnerable areas, nature sensitivity maps have also been introduced.

The above changes are included in the new Chapter 7b of the RES Act entitled "Instruments supporting investments in renewable energy installations".

Selected changes in the auction support system for offshore wind farms

• Conditional pre-qualification: thanks to the changes adopted, a producer who has not yet obtained an environmental decision for a project will be able to apply fora preliminary certificate of admission to participate in an auction. The preliminary certificate will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue (but no longer than the validity period of the documents submitted).

Please note!

A preliminary certificate of admission to participate in an auction does not entitle the holder to participate in the auction. An environmental decision must be submitted before the auction takes place. Once the application has been supplemented with the environmental decision received, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office will reassess the application within 14 days and either issue a certificate of admission to participate in the auction or refuse to issue a certificate.

• Deregulation of the time limit for verifying the number of auction participants: Article 30(4) of the Act on Promoting Electricity Generation in Offshore Wind Farms has been repealed, which means that the President of the Energy Regulatory Office will be able to admit participants to an auction just before its date. Previously, the number of valid certificates of admission to an auction and applications in this regard had to be verified one month before the auction. It is worth noting that the auction will not be concluded if fewer than three valid bids meeting the specified requirements have been submitted. The amendments address this undesirable situation by introducing a new solution – an intervention auction.
• Intervention auction: in the event that an auction is not concluded in 2025, the amendments introduce the possibility of an intervention auction being held in 2026. According to the explanatory memorandum to the amendment act, this solution is intended to prevent a so-called investment gap and a backlog of projects entering the auction in 2027. As a rule, the provisions governing main auctions will apply to intervention auctions.

Practical facilitations for offshore wind farms

Sale of energy prior to a licence being obtained

Enabling electricity generated in an offshore wind farm or part thereof to be sold before an electricity generation licence is obtained for 12 months from the date on which an interim operating permit (ION) is obtained for the wind farm.

Micro-adjustment of foundations

Enabling micro-adjustments of offshore wind farm foundations, i.e. changes in the siting of, among other things, offshore wind turbines by no more than 50 meters, generally without new permits and decisions having to be obtained, but only by a written notification of the change being submitted to the competent director of the maritime office.

Shared power stations

Enabling the shared use of a power station by more than one offshore wind farm.

Longer working hours in ports

The possibility of working hours being extended in maritime ports or maintenance bases to 14 hours per day and 84 hours per week.

Other facilitations and systemic changes

• Enabling the creation of energy cooperatives in urban municipalities (previously, energy cooperatives operated only in rural and urban-rural municipalities);
• Making the conditions for tenant prosumers more flexible;
• Simplifying the procedure for purchasing energy within an energy cluster.

It is worth noting that the amendments change the definition of offshore wind farm, and introduce safety zones and market redispatch for offshore wind farms. The support indexation method has also been changed.

Significance of the amendments

The Act is an important step in the development of wind energy in Poland. Undoubtedly, the changes introduced will help increase the flexibility of Polish regulations on offshore wind investments. It should be added that thanks to the introduction of areas with the greatest potential for renewable energy installations and OPROs, further milestones will be achieved under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The Alert can also be downloaded as a PDF file.

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