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Renewable Energy Update from Poland

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There are still some issues to be decided on the shape of the new law on renewable energy. The biggest one for us in the biogas sector is the reference prices, since it is widely expected that the under 1 MW small auction for projects with more than 4000 MWhr/MW a year will be under-subscribed. The Deputy Minister of Economy gave a 500-600 PLN/MWhr cost estimate in the Parliamentary debates, but this is lower than the Institute for Renewable Energy estimates of the cost of production in their 2013 report commissioned by the same Ministry. He also predicted that all small projects that pre-qualify and bid within the maximum reference price should receive support. This would mean a base price of 190 PLN/MWhr plus the factor times 300 PLN. Since the final law only provides for under 1 MW in practice, the figures would be: 200-500 kW = well over 1000 PLN; 500-1000 kW = 970 PLN. These figures are consistent with numerous studies of the costs of production and are much higher than th