ZE PAK, Poland’s largest privately owned energy producer, and Ørsted, a global leader in offshore wind, have signed a letter of intent to co-participate in the upcoming auction for seabed leases in the Polish section of the Baltic Sea.
The next step for ZE PAK and Ørsted is to create a 50/50 joint venture, which will be subject to merger clearance. If successful in the lease auction, the partners intend to jointly bid in Poland’s future offshore wind CfD auctions planned for 2025 and 2027.
“Wind energy is one of the pillars of ZE PAK’s strategy to switch to zero-emission energy production,” Zygmunt Solorz, the main shareholder and chairman of the Supervisory Board of ZE PAK, said.
“If you are serious about offshore wind energy, then Ørsted, the world’s no. 1 in this field, is the best possible partner,” he said.
“With offshore wind as the backbone, Poland has made the bold decision to transform its energy system to reduce carbon emissions and to make sure that sufficient and cost-competitive renewable power supply is available for Polish businesses and households in the coming decades as coal-fired power stations are being retired,” according to Martin Neubert, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy Group CEO of Ørsted.
Poland has announced its ambition to diversify its energy mix through a large-scale build-out of renewables, thus reducing coal’s share of power generation from approximately 70% today to 11-28% by 2040.
There are currently no offshore wind farms in Poland, but as part of its transition to a low-emission energy system, Poland aims to install 5.9 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 11 GW by 2040.
ZE PAK is Poland’s fifth largest power producer. Listed on the Warsaw stock exchange, it has decided to phase out coal-fired power generation no later than 2030 and intends to join the growing market for renewable hydrogen to help decarbonize other sectors such as heavy transportation and heavy industry.
“At ZE PAK, we try to work with concrete opportunities and take real actions to switch to clean energy production and reduce carbon emissions,” Piotr Woźny, President of the Management Board of ZE PAK, said.
“We have just completed the construction of the largest solar farm in Poland, we will be the first to start producing green hydrogen, we are a leader in reducing carbon emissions and most importantly we will be the first in Poland to move away from coal. Offshore wind energy will be an important part of ZE PAK’s transformation into a producer of clean and green energy,” Woźny said.
“Poland is a strategically important market for Ørsted, and we hope to further expand our presence and investments to help Poland harvest the clean energy resources that are abundantly available in the Baltic Sea,” Rasmus Errboe, Head of Region Continental Europe at Ørsted, said.
The consortium of Ørsted and ZE PAK guarantees a strong financial base, world-leading experience and a clear ambition to help Polish companies become part of a global growth industry.
Globally Ørsted currently has a total of 12 GW of installed renewable capacity, of which 7.6 GW is installed across 28 offshore wind farms. Ørsted expects to have 15 GW of offshore wind capacity installed by 2025, and 30 GW by 2030. Ørsted built the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991 and today develops, constructs, owns and operates offshore wind farms in Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America, including Hornsea 1, which is the world’s largest offshore wind farm with a capacity of 1.2 GW. From 2020 to 2027, Ørsted expects to invest DKK 350 billion in renewable energy of which approx. 80% will be invested in offshore wind and renewable hydrogen.
Ørsted in Poland
Poland is a strategic market for Ørsted, which has been present in the country for 10 years. In addition to the partnership with ZE PAK, Ørsted is investing heavily in offshore wind in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea with PGE. Together, Ørsted and PGE are on track to deliver 2.5 GW offshore wind from the Baltica Offshore Wind Farm, which will be Poland’s largest and one of the first offshore wind projects in the country.
ZE PAK is the largest private electricity producer in Poland with over 60 years of experience in the electricity generation sector.
The ZE PAK Group has recently revealed plans to build small nuclear power plants. The company signed a cooperation agreement with the Austrian company MS Innovation Impulse GMBH to execute the project.
