ORLEN Group to invest in more wind farms
ORLEN has entered into a conditional agreement to purchase two wind farms from a subsidiary of Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust PLC. Units with a total capacity of about 60 MW are located in the Provinces of Poznań and Szczecin. These wind farms, which became operational in 2022, match the energy consumption of over 100,000 households annually. Once the acquisition is completed, ORLEN will have an approximate total renewable capacity of almost 1 GW.
“We are effectively advancing towards strategic goals, which include having 9 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. We consider and evaluate all attractive projects that appear on the market. As a result, our portfolio will soon be expanded to include two additional wind farms with a total capacity of about 60 MW. These are modern units with great potential that will produce clean and affordable energy for the coming decades, to the benefit of the Poles and Poland’s economy, which is becoming more and more competitive thanks to our consistent investment in modern and clean energy sources,” says Daniel Obajtek, ORLEN’s CEO and President of the Management Board.
ORLEN’s new transaction involves the purchase of two onshore wind projects. One of them, Kuślin, is located in the Province of Poznań, near the town of Nowy Tomyśl. It was built in December 2022, with an estimated operational life of about 30 years. The total installed capacity of the farm is about 40 MW. Its infrastructure includes 12 Vestas turbines with a capacity of 3.3 MW each. The other farm, Krzęcin, is located in the Province of Szczecin, near Choszczno. Established in February 2022, it has an estimated life of 30 years. The farm consists of 8 Nordex turbines with a capacity of 2.4 MW each, and its total installed capacity exceeds 19 MW.
The conditional agreement for the purchase of the farms was signed by ORLEN Wind 3, a company of the ORLEN Group. The transaction is expected to be finalised by the end of this year.
Kuślin is another investment of the ORLEN Group in renewable energy sources in the Province of Poznań, where the Przykona wind farm, with a capacity of approximately 33 MW, and the Gryf solar PV farm, with a capacity of approximately 25 MW, are already operational. In the second half of July 2023, ORLEN also entered into a conditional agreement with EDP Renewables Polska to purchase three wind farms located in the Province of Poznań, near the town of Dobrzyca (49.9 MW) and the villages of Ujazd (30 MW) and Dominowo (62.4 MW). In addition, the ORLEN Group company Energa Wytwarzanie signed a preliminary agreement with Greenvolt for the Opalenica and Sompolno projects, with a total capacity of 59 MW. Energa also plans to build PV Mitra (65 MW) and PV Żuki (2.4 MW) solar farms.
Additionally, the ORLEN Group is investing in the construction of the first offshore wind farm with a capacity of up to 1.2 GW in the Polish waters of the Baltic Sea. Baltic Power is the most advanced offshore wind project in Poland, which will significantly change the country's energy mix. Upon its completion in 2026, the farm will start producing clean electricity to power over 1.5 million Polish households. To note, its implementation is already enabling the creation of new jobs.
At the same time, at the beginning of October, companies from ORLEN Group obtained five more licenses for the construction of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea, which may generate assets with a total capacity of about 5.2 GW. In aggregate, the ORLEN Group already holds six offshore wind farm sites with a potential capacity of 6.4 GW.
In line with its strategy, by the end of 2030 the Group aims to achieve renewable energy sources with a total capacity of over 9 GW, including offshore and onshore wind farms, photovoltaics as well as biogas and biomethane generation units. During this time, the Group will also produce energy using small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). In total, by the end of this decade, ORLEN will allocate as much as PLN 120bn for green investments. These efforts, leveraging the synergies and potential of the combined multi-utility group, aim to provide Poles with affordable, safe and clean energy in the future.
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