Foundation for Sustainable Energy
NGO independent think-tank operating to create law favoring development of sustainable energy, supporting development of renewable energy as well as initiating and having dialog between participants of the energy market.
FNEZ is the leading organization responsible for creating substantive grounds for discussion about the future of the offshore wind energy in Poland. Thanks to constant cooperation with the government and parliament representatives, industry-specific organizations, numerous experts, main investors and many other institutions, FNEZ developed and agreed on a number of expert opinions concerning legal, environmental, social and economic conditions for the development of the offshore wind energy. The most important conditions include the following:
- draft amendments to the Act on the maritime areas of the Republic of Poland and maritime administration, allowing the issuance of several dozen local permits for the offshore wind farms,
- “Guide to the location determination and environmental impact forecasting procedures for offshore wind farms in Polish maritime areas”,
- “Analysis of the potential of the offshore wind farms in the selected projects of wind farms near the Polish Baltic Sea coastline”,
- “Polish offshore wind energy and maritime industry development programme”,
- concept of the offshore industrial infrastructure allowing transfer of electricity from the offshore wind farms,
- subsequent projects of support systems for the offshore wind energy within the framework of work on the act on sources of renewable energy,
- initiative to supplement “Strategy for Responsible Development” with “Integrated development of the offshore energy and industry”.
FNEZ was the organizer of a number of events and actions of key importance for creating favorable system environment for the offshore wind farm. The most important of them include the following:
- seminar entitled “Prospects of the Polish-Scandinavian cooperation regarding development of the offshore wind energy on the Baltic Sea” in 2009,
- workshops with the General Directorate for Environmental Protection and Regional Directorate for Environmental Protection in 2012 and 2014 devoted to research into the maritime environment for the purpose of the environmental impact assessment of the offshore wind farm,
- the conference – “Offshore wind energy – a flywheel for the Polish economy” in January 2013, in Słupsk, during which the government representatives expressed their support for the offshore wind energy,
- debate within the framework of “Śniadanie z Rzeczpospolitą” [Breakfast with the Republic of Poland], with the participation of the government and offshore industry representatives,
- “Offshore conference – development of maritime regions” (joint undertaking with the Polish Wind Energy Association) in September 2014, in Słupsk.
- the conference – “Offshore wind energy – an opportunity for the polish economy” in February 27-28, 2017, in Warsaw
- Baltic Energy Industry Forum, in February 2018 and in May 2019, in Warsaw
FNEZ successfully implemented an annual campaign of education and social communication for the project of the offshore wind farm – “Polenergia Bałtyk III”, which resulted in obtaining the first in Poland environmental decisions for this kind of investments and campaign of social communication for the project of the offshore wind farm “Polenergia Bałtyk II”.
Since 2015, FNEZ has been the partner to the “Baltic InteGrid – Integrated Baltic Offshore Wind Electricity Grid Development” project, co-financed from the funds of the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region programme as a whole to achieve the Programs objectives. The purpose of the Baltic InteGrid project is to develop a concept of the grid infrastructure integrated with the offshore wind farm projects based on a detailed analysis of spatial, market, political and regulatory, environmental and social, and technological conditions.
Since 2016 FNEZ has been involved in the promotion of the Polish offshore energy industry potential. FNEZ is one of the initiators and signatories of the Memorandum of the Polish Offshore Energy Sector and the author of the Baltic Energy Industry Forum concept.