Polish MPs vote to make building wind turbines easier
by AFP Staff Writers
Warsaw (AFP) Feb 8, 2023
Poland’s parliament on Wednesday voted to make it easier to build onshore wind turbines, as the conservative government strives to meet conditions to unblock billions of euros in EU funds.
The coal-reliant country is due 35 billion euros ($38 billion) in EU Covid recovery funds but must first fulfil several conditions laid out by Brussels, including on renewable energy.
The draft law approved by the lower house of parliament would ease regulations on how close to residential buildings the turbines can be constructed, thus making it possible to build more.
Poland still burns coal for more than 70 percent of its power.
A total of 214 lawmakers voted in favour of the legislation, which needs a green light from the senate and the president’s signature to go into effect.
Twenty-seven MPs voted against the draft, while 209 abstained.
With its sight set on unblocking the funds, the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party put up the latest proposals, which would liberalise rules it had introduced in 2016.
That had dealt a heavy blow to wind energy, making it virtually impossible to build new turbines on land by requiring that they be located a distance of 10 times their height from any residential building.
In other words, a wind turbine that is 200 metres (218 yards) high must be at least two kilometres (1.24 miles) away from the nearest house.
The existing regulations rendered the vast majority of Polish territory ineligible for the turbines.
The new legislation would reduce the minimum distance from residential buildings to 700 metres.
The initial proposal had been 500 metres but was revised upwards in parliament, a change the wind industry complained would significantly reduce expected capacity.
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