The project is part of ambitious plans by Poland to develop wind farms along its Baltic Sea coastline. The government aims for around a fifth of the country’s electricity to come from offshore wind by 2040, as Poland moves away from reliance on coal and towards renewables and nuclear.
“This is a technological victory for all those who believed that Poland could be among the leading countries in modern energy,” declared Prime Minister Donald Tusk at a ceremony announcing the first electricity from the Baltic Power facility.
He said that offshore wind is a “key element of our energy security and sovereignty” because it provides power that is “independent of geopolitical turbulence in these highly uncertain times.”
Tusk noted that the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Poland and other EU countries stopped importing Russian gas and oil, and the current crisis in the Middle East, which has prevented oil and gas exports from the region, highlight how important it is to have a diverse energy mix.