Poland’s largest privately-owned energy producer ZE PAK, which is looking to shift from coal to renewables, and Denmark's Ørsted world's largest offshore wind developer have signed a letter of intent to jointly take part in the upcoming auction for seabed leases in the Polish part of the Baltic Sea.
The duo now plans to create a 50/50 joint venture which will be subject to merger clearance. The two companies will jointly participate in the upcoming auction for seabed leases in the Polish Baltic Sea.
If successful in the lease auction, the partners intend to jointly bid into Poland’s future offshore wind CfD auctions planned for 2025 and 2027 to further expand their footprint and investments to support Poland on the country’s journey towards climate neutrality, Orsted said Thursday.
Zygmunt Solorz, main shareholder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ZE PAK, says: "Wind energy is one of the pillars of ZE PAK's strategy to switch to zero-emission energy production and I am glad that we have the opportunity to cooperate with Ørsted. If you are serious about offshore wind energy, then Ørsted, the world's no. 1 in this field, is the best possible partner. The potential, achievements and experience of Ørsted in the production of clean energy are impressive and can undoubtedly support the energy transformation of both ZE PAK and the entire Polish energy sector."
Martin Neubert, Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy Group CEO of Ørsted, says: “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. With very strong local know-how, leading global experience and joint ambitions, ZE PAK and Ørsted can support Poland in making the transition from fossil-based to renewable energy sources happen while creating thousands of local jobs and re-skilling and up-skilling the workforce from the coal industry to renewables.”
Poland has announced an ambition to diversify the country’s energy mix through a large-scale build-out of renewables, thus reducing coal’s share of the 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 offshore wind by 2030 and 11 GW by 2040.