19-03-2014
Some PLN600m (€143m) has been earmarked for small renewable energy installations in Poland. The funding will come from a new programme called Prosument, which is a subset of the country’s environmental fund NFOSiGW.
Projects eligible for funding will include biomass installations of up to 300 kilowatt watt thermal, heat pumps as well as PV, wind, and solar installations with capacity of up to 40kW. Their cost must range between €23,000 and €107,000.
The support will come in the form of preferential, low-interest loans and subsidies that, combined, could finance up to 100% of costs.
About 165,000 tonnes of CO2 is expected to be avoided annually thanks to the programme, and 360,000MWh of energy should be produced as a result.
The programme comes into effect just weeks before the Polish government is expected to release the final version of a legislative proposal to establish a new renewable energy support scheme.
In addition, a proposal to restore support for small combined heat and power (CHP) installations of up to one megawatt using coal or gas is about to be approved by Polish MPs. It will be signed off by the president’s office this month.
Subsidies for small CHP installations expired in March 2013 and the sector has been lobbying to restore them because it is struggling to compete with larger plants burning methane from coal mining or biomass, which enjoy support until end of 2018.
An early version of the proposal proposed extending support for small CHP units until the end of 2015, but the current version extends it to the end of 2018. According to data from Poland’s Energy Regulatory Office, small CHP produces almost 2.7 million MWh of energy. The data for 2013 is expected this month.
