Coronavirus threatens Polish wind projects

The coronavirus outbreak may prevent several of Poland's onshore wind farms projects under construction from meeting their contracted timetables, said the Polish association of wind farms (PSEW).

The association on Monday urged the Polish government to pass an emergency law allowing onshore wind farms to ask for waivers to delay completion of their projects by 12 months from earlier contracted deadlines.

Investors in Poland are in the process of building nearly 3.5GW of onshore wind capacity following government contracts awarded in auctions for contracts for difference in 2018 and 2020. There are more projects under construction based just on commercial financing and power purchase contracts with industrial users.

The PSEW said on Monday that it sees a risk that at least some investors will miss contracted deadlines because of restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The wind farm supply chain had already been strained following the outbreak in China, but the situation worsened this month as the pandemic spread in Europe. The PSEW said that in Spain three wind farm equipment manufacturers had suspended operations in the third week of March, with more disruptions likely to affect manufacturers and service providers.

In February Polish generation of electricity from onshore wind farms reached its highest monthly volume ever of more than 2TWh. Because of new investment and declining electricity demand, Poland is likely to meet its EU goal of 15pc renewables share in its final energy consumption in 2020, according to Poland-based think-tank Instrat.

The coronavirus outbreak led to a 7.5pc decline in Poland's electricity consumption in the third week of March compared with the first week of the month, according to Instrat. The think-tank urged Poland not to use the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse to slow its energy transformation. Last week's decline in EU emissions trading system allowance prices led to brief growth in the share prices of Poland's power generators, which produce mainly from lignite and hard coal. There were also calls in Poland from political lobbies urging the EU to reduce its emission reduction ambition because of an expected recession caused by the coronavirus outbreak.