On 15 September 2015 the first draft of the regulation of the Ministry of Economy which sets reference prices of electricity generated from renewable energy sources ("RES") was published. The regulation is an executive act to the Renewable Energy Sources Act of 20 February 2015 ("RES Act").

Under the RES Act those RES installations which initiate generation of energy on or after 1 January 2016 will compete for support in auctions organized by President of the Energy Regulatory Office. The main criterion of an auction will be the unit price for renewable electricity. The price offered by the bidders cannot be higher than a statutory reference price i.e. the maximum bid price. The above mentioned draft sets these reference prices for 2016.

The reference prices are determined separately for eligible technologies and depend on the size of the installations. The reference prices were divided between RES installations which start generating renewable energy after 1 January 2016 and RES installations modernized after 1 January 2016.

A separate reference price was foreseen for RES installations which start generating renewable energy before 1 January 2016 and have the right to support in the form of green certificates, however will participate in the auction system voluntarily. This reference price was not published yet.

No. Type of RES installation Reference price (in PLN per MWh) for RES installation which started generating renewable energy after 1 January 2016 Reference price (in PLN per MWh) for RES installation modernized after 1 January 2016
1 Onshore wind energy installations with aggregated installed capacity of up to 1 MW 415 415
2 Onshore wind energy installations with aggregated installed capacity of over 1 MW 385 385
3 Offshore wind energy installations 470 470
4 Solar energy installations with aggregated installed capacity of up to 1 MW 465 465
5 Solar energy installations with aggregated installed capacity of over 1 MW 445 445
6 Biogas installations with aggregated installed capacity of up to 1 MW 450 450
7 Agriculture biogas installations with aggregated installed capacity of over 1 MW 435 435
8 Installations using biogas extracted from a landfill site and dedicated to generating electric energy 210 210
9 Installations dedicated to generating electric energy using biogas extracted from a sewage treatment plant 400 400
10 Installations dedicated to generate electric energy using the biogas other than extracted from a landfill site or a sewage treatment plant 340 340
11 Dedicated biomass combustion installations or biomass hybrid systems with aggregated installed capacity of up to 50 MW 415 415
12 High-efficiency CHP dedicated biomass combustion installations or high-efficiency CHP biomass hybrid systems with aggregated capacity of up to 50 MW 435 435
13 Biomass dedicated combustion installations or biomass hybrid systems with aggregated installed capacity of over 50 MW and up to 150 MWt of CHP 420 420
14 Waste incineration plants with aggregated installed capacity of up to 50 MW or up to 150 MWt of CHP, which use biodegradable parts of industrial or municipal waste to generate electricity, including waste after pre-treatment or extracted from a sewage treatment plant, in particular sewage sludge in a waste incineration plant 385 385
15 Installations which solely use bioliquids to generate electric energy 475 475
16 Hydropower installations with aggregated installed capacity of up to 1 MW 445 445
17 Hydropower installations with aggregated installed capacity of over 1 MW 480 480
18 Geothermal installations 455 455

The draft regulation has been forwarded for inter-departmental and public consultations.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.