GE Renewable Energy and PKN ORLEN sign MOU on offshore wind in Poland

GE Renewable Energy and PKN ORLEN announced today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore ways to work together to support the development of offshore wind projects in Poland, a country expected to award up to 10.9 GW of offshore wind projects by 2030 and up to 28 GW of offshore wind by 2050. The agreement can help accelerate the energy transition in Poland by helping the country take full advantage of its offshore wind resources.

GE has a long history in Poland with over 5,000 employees working in Aviation, Healthcare, Power and GE Renewable Energy. The company has an Engineering Design Centre with over 1,200 engineers and unique experience in executing large power projects. GE Renewable Energy is already an active player in the Polish wind market with over 300 onshore wind turbines delivering 900 MW, with almost half of that coming online since 2018. LM Wind Power, a GE Renewable Energy business, also employs around 1,000 employees at its Goleniow onshore wind turbine blade manufacturing site.

With this new MoU, GE continues to showcase its ambition to support Poland in meeting its renewable energy goals and aims to further collaborate with local suppliers and help them develop their capacity to support the growing offshore wind industry in Poland and more broadly. GE Renewable Energy is solidifying its position to competitively serve the growing offshore wind market with partners in the region.

Jérôme Pécresse, Senior Vice President, GE & CEO, GE Renewable Energy, said, “Poland is well positioned to use offshore wind resources to help accelerate the energy transition. The agreement that we are signing today charts a path to take pragmatic steps that can take full advantage of Poland substantial offshore wind resources to create win-win outcomes in terms of the environment and economic development.”

Daniel Obajtek, President of the Management Board of PKN ORLEN said “We are the leader of the energy transformation in Central Europe. We are implementing a strategy that assumes an increase in capacity from renewable energy sources to over 2.5 GW at the end of this decade. We want to achieve this level mainly by investing in offshore wind energy and, at the same time, expanding the RES portfolio with additional capacity in onshore wind farms. The agreement we signed with GE Renewable Energy supports the implementation of these ambitious goals. The experience gained thanks to this cooperation and the joint involvement in the development of the Polish offshore wind energy sector will make a significant part of the developing offshore market a share of Polish capital in the upcoming concession procedure.”

The government of Poland has announced plans to award up to 10.9 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and offers new sea areas enabling development of future offshore wind projects. Country’s offshore wind capacity is estimated to be 28 GWs by 2050.  The country is also well positioned to serve the broader efforts to develop offshore wind in the Baltic region.

GE Renewable Energy is committed to accelerating the energy transition in partnership with its customers and other stakeholders by supplying and maintaining a global fleet of renewable energy assets, helping reduce the cost of renewable energy, ensuring grid resiliency, efficiency, and reliability, and making renewable energy more dispatchable. A sustainable, circular design strategy is at the heart of these activities.