New concessions for offshore wind farms only for PGE and Orlen. Ustka is to have an installation and service port, and the Baltic Hub container terminal at the Port of Gdansk is in talks about offshore with PGE.

At the press conference organized by the Ministry of Infrastructure regarding the completion of the process of granting new licenses for the construction of offshore wind farms in the Polish Baltic Sea, a barrage of new information about the development of Polish offshore appeared.

The conference was attended by Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Marek Gróbarczyk and the Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure Anna Łukaszewska-Trzeciakowska.

Gróbarczyk started with information that 10 new licenses for the construction of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea were awarded half each to PGE and the Orlen Group.

– 10 offshore fields cover nearly 1,000 km2, representing over 9 GW. As a result of our several-year-long process, five offshore fields went to PGE and another five to the Orlen Group. I think we can happily report that Polish maritime areas have been transferred to Polish energy companies, which is extremely important in the context of energy security and guarantees the implementation of these activities. We consider the completion of the process, which clearly confirms the implementation of offshore wind energy, to be completed from today – said Gróbarczyk.

The deputy minister mentioned the role of ports in offshore development. The construction of the installation terminal in Świnoujście has "de facto begun", but others were also mentioned.

– The entire logistics area will be carried out from the Polish port. In addition, we need to add investments made by suppliers of turbines and components of offshore wind farms, as well as the entire licensing process related to the construction of the T5 terminal at the Baltic Hub in Gdańsk, which is to be important in the implementation of the further part of offshore wind farms. Baltic Hub is in very advanced talks with PGE. This is the next stage of securing the port infrastructure from the eastern side. The concept of building an installation and service port in Ustka, which will be implemented in the coming years, is our assumption in the field of offshore wind energy.

– We proved last year that we can ensure the energy security of Poles – said Anna Łukaszewska-Trzeciakowska, mentioning, among others, Baltic Pipe, LNG terminal, and FSRU project on the Bay of Gdańsk.

– We are safe when it comes to gas. Interconnectors with Slovakia and Lithuania allow us to support our neighbors. We are safe, but this is only the beginning of the road to ensuring that our future energy mix is safe, sovereign and economically attractive enough to attract new investments to Poland and so that Poles do not worry about the cost of electricity. The answer is nuclear energy, but also offshore – she said.

– The new energy heart of Poland will beat in the north. It is necessary to build new roads, railways and ports that will deliver very large components to the nuclear power plant, allow offshore installations and then service them: Łeba, Ustka, Świnoujście, Tricity. The offshore heart of Poland will beat in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, and the nuclear heart will beat in Tricity – there, in turn, a pier will be built kilometer deep into the sea, through which we will deliver the largest elements of the Polish nuclear power plant to the construction site – announced Łukaszewska-Trzeciakowska.

She also mentioned that offshore investments are ongoing, although for now they are mainly at the stage of obtaining the necessary permits. She added that today another location decision was received for the 400 kV Choczewo-Żarnowiec transmission line, which will be used to transfer energy from wind farms.