On Thursday 20 May, the European Commission authorised Poland to pay €22.5 billion in State aid to the offshore wind energy sector. The measure will help Poland to reach its renewable energy targets without unduly distorting competition.
For Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy, this support is “a very good example” of how competition policy can enable Member States to support green energy projects such as offshore wind farms. “We hope that we will see many such initiatives in the future”, she added.
The aid will be granted in the form of a two-way contract for differences premium, for a period of 25 years, but with a limit of 100,000 full load hours per megawatt of installed capacity.
After obtaining the environmental permit which will fix the final technical characteristics of the project, each project will submit an individual notification with a business plan to the Commission. Based on the respective business plan, the Commission will assess the specific level of operating aid on an individual basis. The scheme has a total maximum budget of €22.5 billion, and will run until 2030.
The Commission finds that the aid is necessary and has an incentive effect, as the offshore wind projects could not be realised without public support. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)