The amendment to the Energy Law Act of 8 January 2010 implemented an obligation to make an advance payment for the connection fee of PLN 30 (€ 7) for each kW of electric power of the facility to be connected. As specified in the provisions of the Energy Law Act, the advance payment is repayable by the electricity network operator/distributor when the grid connection permit is refused due to technical or economic conditions of the connection. The advance payment will also be refunded if the source is not connected. This is not provided in the statutory regulations. There is a risk that the entity may receive connection conditions which are not favourable to project implementation from an economic viewpoint.

When connecting to the grid, the Distribution System Operator may establish a fee, which is agreed with the applicant. The connection of RES to the grid can be refused because of technical conditions at the time requested by investor.

Another problem is that for facilities above 2 MW a study on the impact of the connected generation facility on the electricity system is required, which results are inaccessible to applicants. Furthermore, distribution and transmission system operators include in the fee the cost of network modernisation and expansion outside the connection point.

Most investments in renewable energy sources may be located in specific locations on the basis of the local spatial development plan. If municipalities did not develop their local plans, the development of the projects takes much longer (at least 1 year and up to even 3 years longer). There is also a lack of knowledge about the areas with possible grid connection capacities. These two factors increase enormously the risk on the side of the developer.

In order to obtain such documentation, it is often necessary to obtain a prior environmental decision which often is preceded by an environmental impact assessment of the planned project and a report on environmental impact assessment.

A location decision is required when applying for connection conditions to the electricity network. Thus, the investor is exposed to major risk of preparing a project without being guaranteed connection to the network but also without having information if, when and under what conditions such connection to the network can be made. Pursuant to art. 7 of the Energy Law Act, network operators/distributors are obliged to publish information on available capacity but only with respect to the network above 110 kV. This is, however, a dead letter as a majority of RES generation capacity in Poland is connected to the network with voltage up to 110 kV in total (according to the Polish Economic Chamber of Renewable and Distributed Energy (PIGEOR), this is the case for about 90% of all existing RES facilities).

Additionally, the existing provision of art. 7.8l of the Energy Law Act causes different interpretation, which results in diverging information on the websites of energy companies involved in power transmission or distribution. As a result, it is impossible to obtain clear information on the planned locations of physical connection of generation facilities (information is published solely for designated network voltage). This notwithstanding, a majority of TSO/DSO do not fully comply or do not comply altogether with the requirements of the Act with respect to providing information on grid connection capacity and on extension plans for the designated voltage range above 110 kV. There are also instances when the published information does not provide anything required by the legislator – no information is published on the available connection capacity at the connection point; only information on capacity available to end users connected to the network is published. Most TSO/DSO companies avoid the presentation of zero connection capacity.

Furthermore, a new project of the law on building is considered, which would introduce the condition that installations with capacity over 50 kW should be included not only in the communal plans of spacial development but also in the regional (wojewódzkie) plans.

The time required to develop fully permitted projects (with construction permit) is at least 9-12 months. Unfortunately, developers often inform about delays on almost every step of the project development. The most complicated administrative issues are the lack of spatial plans, the lack of information on available grid capacities, and difficulties while preparing environmental reports. In addition, the unstable legal situation (lack of fully implemented Directive 2009/28/EU) makes the project developing process much longer.

The legal system provides for using biogas not only for direct generation of electricity and/or heat, but also for a possibility to evacuate biogas into the gas distribution network. However in spite of the provisions of the RES-Act, the executive order regarding evacuating biomathane into the gas distribution network has still not been issued. The lack of additional executive order provisions still blocks the possibility of launching such installations.

The circles supporting the development of renewable energy sources in Poland have been waiting for years for Poland’s Government to propose and have an act approved on renewable energy sources that will set forth a long-term stable development of the energy sector and will introduce a basic legal order, in particular with reference to a long-term support strategy for the existing and planned installations using renewable energy sources. Past changes of the Energy Act did not convince the parties interested in RES development. After its adoption in February 2015, the RES Act has already been amended several times and next amendments are still due. The amendments have thoroughly changed the auction system, so that it supports more biomass and solar energy. Plans for auctions are announced always until the end of October of the previous year, so the system is not predictable.

The certificate-based support system (for installations connected before 1 July 2016) was changed and amended several times. The market price of the so-called “green certificates” observed slumps from almost 200 PLN/MWh (€ 46.50) in 2013 to around 100 PLN/MWh (€ 23.25) in May 2016 and 40 PLN/MWh in August 2016, after which it has remained at a comparable, low level, to recover in 2018. Part of the problem was the increased supply because coal-biomass co-firing is counted as green energy. The producers have also a big amount of certificates that has not been written off yet. On the other hand, the demand decreased significantly because of the change of required amount of certificates. It was changed from 15% of green certificates to 14.35% for green certificates and 0.65% for blue certificates (for biogas) in the second half of 2016. The situation was and partly still is particularly precarious for wind farms, which were financed predominantly by commercial loans.

The quota system was substituted by auctions (tenders) for installations connected after 1 July 2016 as well as for older installations wishing to move to the new system ("migration auctions"). The first auctions were carried out in December 2016 with just two more rounds in 2017. The long notification process, which due to a back-and-forth with the COM lasted nearly a year and a half, delayed further auctions. 13 rounds were carried out in 2018. However, there is no long-term scheduling of the volumes of electricity or shares of particular technologies. Despite the flaws of the quota system, many existing power plants did not migrate to the new auction-based feed-in premium support scheme due to the uncertainties (many such migration auctions ended unresolved).

The RES Act should allow MoE executive orders with timetables, volume and reference prices for each technology.

There is no strategic support for the development of RES in Poland among politicians, state-owned energy companies and governmental bodies. Large parts of the ruling Law & Justice party and its administration oppose RES for various reasons. Firstly, some do not understand the necessity to begin a transformation of the power system that has functioned properly for years. Secondly, many are still under the infuence of the coal lobby.

The arguments used against RES are that the energy generated from such sources is more expensive and contributes to growing energy prices for end users, that it deteriorates the landscape and that it adversely affects the functioning of the electricity transmission system. These arguments and many others are used to minimise RES popularity among citizens. As a result, private investors struggle with an unfriendly investment climate. In this regard, the campaign against wind energy installations was particularly tough and resulted in the adoption of the new law on investment in wind plants, which makes such investments practically impossible.

The government declares clearly that coal will be the basis of the Polish energy system well into 2040s. Some measures taken by the government are aiming at hindering sustainable, renewable energy development (e.g. change of support for prosumers and restrictions for building wind farms). State-owned energy companies implemented the strategy which is based on co-firing of biomass (often from abroad) together with coal. New renewable projects like wind farms and biogas plants cannot be rival for such a technology, even if state-owned subsidiaries engage in RES projects and show great interest in offshore wind (esp. PGE). Therefore, enormous inequalities take place on the market.

For several years, the companies investing in agricultural biogas plants have been voicing an unsolved problem related to excessively restrictive legal regulations concerning the use of fermented mass from agricultural materials and of agricultural origin directly in fertilising without the need to monitor heavy metal content as it is necessary in the case of sludge. Post-fermentation mass from agricultural biogas plants is treated equally in terms of legal approach as the sludge mass and thus it may not be used directly for fertilisation. The situation is not understandable as the sludge maybe used directly for fertilisation before the process of methane fermentation. After the methane fermentation process, the mass becomes a waste.

Banks make the financing of RES projects more difficult because of growing investment risks and lack of knowledge necessary to assess a project's viability. Many investors may have problems with paying off loans after the fall of prices of green certificates. Under the new auction system, the entire risk is on the side of the investor (and not of the government), so many banks become even more reluctant. The unstable, constantly amended legal framework further exacerbates the reluctance of financial institutions to back up investment in RES. The Polish Banks Association voiced its concerns and in February 2018 called on the government to approach RES wholistically and seriously.

The current support system is not sufficient for PV and biogas installations with a capacity of approx. 100 kW to 2 MW. Although the new system includes different reference prices for different technologies (whereas the previous support scheme had only one reference price), the current support still does not ensure viability of small PV and biogas projects (according to a PV expert).

The insufficient national support scheme for PV and biogas installations may however be counterbalanced in some regions, where enterprises, cooperatives and housing associations might obtain a subsidy of up to 85% of the value of the investment.

In some places there is opposition against RES installations from associations which can act as a part of procedure (environmental planning and building procedure). The protests resulted in the adoption of the new law on investment in wind plants, which makes such investment practically impossible.

Given the current "anti-wind law," the development of wind energy has been brought to a halt. This could be helped by giving the decision-making power to municipalities (e.g. communes) to rule on RES projects themselves, including e.g. referenda.

The grid capacity is not sufficient, and DSOs seem to make progress only at a sluggish pace. In 2017, 76% of overhead high-voltage (110 kV) lines of five biggest DSOs were older than 25 years.

Coal is the major source of energy in Poland. Large state-owned facilities and grid companies dictate their terms on the market and thus leave only very little leeway for stakeholders of the renewable energy sector.

In Poland, a high amount of the suitable land plots for renewable energy installations belongs to the Agricultural Property Agency (Agencja Nieruchomości Rolnych). However, the administrative procedure for the use of those land plots is unclear, complicated, expensive and time consuming. There are clear limitations for RES installations within city limits and changing land status, which is related to spatial planning difficulties at municipal level.

There is a constant preference and promotion of conventional and nuclear energy by the Polish Government. Renewable energies are still considered as ineffective and expensive technologies. There is a strong preference for centralised solutions of the energy system, despite recent interest of PGE in offshore wind. Moreover, RES are viewed as destabilising the system.

The process of obtaining environmental decision for large projects, i.e. wind farms, is complicated, due to the fact that such projects involve administrative decisions touching upon both the project itself and the transmission grid. Because of the file complexity of large projects connected to the transmission grid, the whole permitting procedure is long and complicated for the administrative authorities.

At each step of the procedure, residents may repeal from the decision (i.e. environmental decision, building plan) without stating an exact reason. This is why the repeal procedure can last forever. Also, the reasons to repeal can be unjustified, they still have to be taken under consideration of the proper authority. However, according to the RES-Act, in some cases the repeal has to be considered within a maxiumum of 30 days.

Different tax rates for the turbine constructions and for the farm infrastructure, as well as for ground-mounted and on-roof PV installations. Legal changes are a work in progress.

Transmission lines from the wind farm usually have to go through allotments owned by private landowners. This frequent situation results in high costs of the remuneration for the landowners for the use of the land. Such a situation makes the investment much more expensive and time-consuming, esp. concerning the negotiation process.

In June 2016, the Polish Parliament adopted a new law on investment in wind plants. The law aims at protecting health and maintaining the standard of living of the citizens in the vicinity of wind farms. The new provisions make it illegal for new wind turbines to be located near homes, schools and natural reserves. In general, the construction of wind turbines will be not allowed at a distance of at least 10 times their height, that is around 1.5 km. According to the wind power industry, this solution will practically stop the development of wind onshore energy in Poland.