Poland: Wind power runs out of steam
After a period of unregulated wind power development in Poland, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. Now, hardly any turbines are being built in the country.
The melt-in-the-mouth cheesecake on sale at Cafe Manufaktura Ciasta and the gentle sea breeze blowing around the village of Cisowo on the Baltic coast leaves visitors in no doubt that they are in a particularly lovely part of Poland — were it not for the huge wind turbine towering over the cafe just 3 meters (10 feet) from the road.
Within a radius of just a few hundred meters, a dozen other wind turbines have been erected in a seemingly random manner across the coastal landscape. They belong to two wind farms that were completed in 2001 and 2013.
It seems as if no consideration was given to maintaining any kind of distance from roads and houses. The operators of these wind farms — the companies Energia Eco and Enerco — said they obtained all the necessary construction permits from the relevant authorities.
Restrictions placed on turbine construction
To put a stop to this kind of unregulated wind turbine development, Poland's government, which is led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, passed a law in 2016 that introduced the so-called "10H rule" for all new wind turbine projects.
This rule stipulates that the distance between a wind turbine and the nearest house or nature reserve must be at least 10 times the turbine's height. If, for example, a wind turbine is 200 meters (656 feet) high, it must be at least 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the nearest house or nature reserve.
Law limits land available for turbines
People who don't like the look of wind turbines or consider them unhealthy or even damaging to the environment — whether in Poland or elsewhere around the world — have welcomed such restrictions.
But for the operators of wind turbines and supporters of renewable energy, the 10H rule pretty much means the end of onshore wind power development. Janusz Gajowiecki, president of the Polish Wind Energy Association, said that because of the law, only 0.28% of Poland's land area is now available for the construction of wind turbines.
"Current legislation rules out virtually all land for the construction of new wind turbines," said Aleksandra Dziadkiewicz of the interdisciplinary Polish think tank Forum Energii. She goes on to say that any new turbines currently under construction are being built on the basis of permits that were issued before the 10H law came into force, in other words before 2016.
"Yet Poland needs lots of new wind turbines for the energy transition," she said, "and as quickly as possible."
Compromise sought to allow for development
In late January, an amendment to the law was put to parliament. The hope was that a compromise could be reached that would help wind turbine operators. The amendment proposed cutting the legally required distance between turbines and houses or nature reserves to 500 meters.
Read More Here: DW
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