ORLEN Group to increase RES investment in Poznań region. PV Gryf secures support under RES auction.

Energa OZE, a subsidiary of the ORLEN Group’s subsidiary Energa, issued a Notice to Proceed (NTP) on the PV Gryf solar photovoltaic farm on December 30th 2020 after the project won the Energy Regulatory Office’s ordinary auction for the sale of renewable electricity in the category of solar photovoltaic and wind farms with a capacity of more than 1MW on December 14th 2020. All the winning generation sources can count on being paid a fixed sale price until 2038. The Energy Regulatory Office contracted a total of about 42m MWh of electricity worth almost PLN 9.5bn for 2021–2038 in the auction.

The process to select a general contractor for PV Gryf was completed in November last year. The contract provides for the use of high-efficiency photovoltaic panels ensuring optimum use of the post-mining areas of the Adamów mine where the installation is to be erected.

PV Gryf will be the largest photovoltaic farm owned by the ORLEN Group, consisting of about 40,000 state-of-the-art solar panels with an installed capacity of almost 20 MW. The PV Gryf photovoltaic farm is yet another project built within the premises of the former Adamów lignite mine in the Przykona commune. Its location is key, enabling the project to use the existing transmission infrastructure. The land owned by Energa in the Przykona commune has great investment potential – according to estimates, assets with a total capacity of about 160 MW can be built on the 300 ha of land.

Next-generation wind turbines

The first step towards fully harnessing this potential was the construction of the Przykona Wind Farm, featuring Vestas V-126, one of the largest and advanced wind turbines in Poland, with a capacity of 3.45 MW each.. Nine such wind turbines, with a total capacity of 31.05 MW, currently produce electricity in Przykona, with the target annual production estimated at around 80 GWh. Przykona is the first wind farm in Poland to use this wind turbine model.

The Przykona Wind Farm is the first project put in commercial operation since the consolidation of the Energa Group with PKN ORLEN. The project helped to increase the share of renewable sources in total installed capacity of Energa’s generation sources to 39%. After the Przykona WF came on stream, the installed capacity of Energa’s wind assets rose to 242 MW and the total estimated annual production from these sources increased to approximately 500 GWh.

​The expansion of new RES capacity in Przykona will significantly improve the proportion of renewable sources in total electricity production from Energa’s assets. In line with current market trends and ongoing changes in the macroeconomic environment, PKN ORLEN and Energa aim to expand their renewable energy generation portfolio, wind and photovoltaic in particular, which will contribute to the ORLEN Group achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.