On 20th March 2015, the Polish Parliament adopted the act on amending certain acts relating to strengthening the measures for landscape protection, i.e. the so-called “landscape act”.

The main objective of the landscape act is to introduce order in the public space in Poland.

The draft landscape act in its initial wording contained certain regulations that had the potential to significantly constrain growth of the wind energy industry in Poland. This was related to the introduction of restrictions pertaining to erection of landscape dominants. The draft act defined a landscape dominant as a structure having a prominent visual impact on the landscape. Therefore, wind power stations would above all have been deemed to constitute landscape dominants. The most controversial restriction in respect of erection of landscape dominants was to be the exclusion of the possibility to erect such a facility based on a zoning decision. This meant that upon entry into effect of the landscape act, implementation of wind farm schemes would have only been possible based on the local zoning plan. In the end, the above restriction was removed from the text of the act in the course of the parliamentary work.

In the format ultimately adopted by the Polish Parliament, the landscape act focuses for the most part on defining and protecting the so-called “priority landscape”. The key tool providing protection for the landscape is the landscape audit, which is to be drawn up once every 20 years. Such landscape audits will be used to designate priority landscapes, i.e. locations of particular importance to the public resulting from their natural, cultural, historic, architectural and other value as specified in the act. It will be possible to introduce legal regulations in respect of priority landscapes at the voivodship level aimed at restricting the possibility to erect building structures by means of introducing e.g. a permissible shape or a maximum height for such structures. This constitutes a novum as up until now landscape protection was first and foremost the responsibility of the municipality. The landscape act has now been forwarded to the Senate, which has the right to adopt it in full, propose amendments or reject it in full.

Will the RES act be amended?

On 11th March 2015, the President of the Republic of Poland signed the act on renewable energy sources. Despite the fact that the act has not yet entered into effect, voices are already emerging across the Ministry of Economy and the Energy Regulatory Office that it is necessary to amend it due to the interpretive uncertainties as regards the provisions thereof.

The criticism in respect of the RES act concerns above all the provisions relating to support for prosumers as regards the guaranteed feed-in tariffs. In the opinion of those representing the Ministry of Economy, the RES act in its current wording is not consistent with EU law as regards state aid and its provisions are not consistent with the guidelines of the European Commission on block exemptions (GBER). Furthermore, the criticism in respect of the RES act implies that support has been set at too high a level, which will encourage the selling of the entire volume of the generated electric energy. As per the initial intention, prosumers were to first and foremost use the generated electric energy for their own purposes, and sell only the surplus electric energy generated.

There are also voices of criticism resulting from the doubts as to how to interpret some of the provisions of the act on renewable energy sources that could in the end necessitate an amendment thereto. In particular, an issue here is the amount of support in the form of guaranteed feed-in tariffs to which prosumers will be entitled. Based on the adopted version of the RES act, it is not clear whether the guaranteed feed-in tariffs will be granted for all the electric energy generated by the given prosumer or whether support will be given only for the electric energy that is not used for own purposes. The RES act imposes an obligation on obligated suppliers to purchase electric energy for a period of 15 years, however it does not specify the manner in which this is to be done or what funds are to be used to cover the negative balance.

Queries relating to interpretative uncertainties have been submitted to the Energy Regulatory Office by numerous entities from the renewable energy industry. The uncertainties that emerged refer also to other issues such as the rules for entry into effect of the regulations in respect of support for generation units connected in stages, the rules for support for renewable energy sources that commence generation of electric energy after 31st December 2015 but before winning an auction, as well as the issue of covering the costs of commercial balancing by obligated suppliers. So far, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office has not issued an opinion on the interpretation of certain unclear provisions of the RES act.

Considerable drop in the average selling price for electric energy for the year 2014

On 30th March 2015, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office published information no. 12/2015 on the average selling price for electric energy on the competitive market for the year 2014.

In 2014, the average selling price for electric energy on the competitive market amounted to PLN 163.58/MWh (approx. EUR 40.00/MWh) and it is approx. PLN 18.00 lower than in the previous year.

The first criteria for selection of schemes under the infrastructure and environment operational programme are now published

The first criteria for selection of schemes qualifying for funding with EU funds under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme within the new 2014-2020 perspective were published on 25th March 2015. The funds available under the Infrastructure and Environment Programme are given to infrastructure schemes of domestic and international significance. The programme focuses, amongst others, on support for renewable energy sources and support in respect of environmental monitoring and energy efficiency. The criteria applicable to individual programmes were set out at the first meeting of the Monitoring Committee for the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme, during which the rules and regulations of the Monitoring Committee were also adopted. The horizontal formal criteria for selection of schemes for the I-IX axis under the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme were amongst those to be adopted.

Furthermore, the Monitoring Committee adopted the sector criteria for selection of schemes within the framework of sub-measure 1.3.3 of the 2014-2020 Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme under the name of “Nationwide consultancy support system for the public and residential sector as well as businesses with regard to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources”. Criteria in respect of the following requirements were amongst those to be adopted: requirements relating to the manner in which a scheme is to be implemented as well as requirements regarding the applicant and the schedule for implementing a scheme. It was determined that the product and result indices should be objectively verifiable and that they should reflect the set objectives of the scheme as suitable for a given type of a scheme. The planned expenses relating to managing a scheme should be justified, reasonable and suitable for the scope and objectives of the scheme.

More information on the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme and rules for obtaining support can be found on the www.pois.gov.pl website.

By Dominik Soltysiak and Maciej Prusak