Statistics from Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej, a Polish research institute, show that despite the rise in the number of project rejections, the Polish solar market is still expected to see significant growth due to an increase in the number of projects receiving grid-connected permits.

Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej (IEO) revealed that as of the end of September, 6,929 PV projects with a total capacity of about 18 GW had been granted preliminary grid-connection permits. Compared to the end of March, project and planned capacity increased by 41% and 46%, respectively.

Since December, Polish authorities have issued grid-connected permits for 6.6 GW of PV projects, of which 1.2 GW also received construction permits.

"In total, the total capacity of PV projects with construction permits between December 2022 and November 2023 is more than 2.5GW," the IEO said.

Despite new projects and increasing capacity, the country's transmission system operators have rejected many project applications. Over the past two quarters, for example, Enea has rejected 380 project applications with a total capacity of 6.28 GW and 109 projects with a total capacity of 312 MW. According to the IEO, by the end of 2022, Poland's cumulative installed PV capacity has reached 12.4 GW. By the end of 2025, its installed solar capacity could more than double to 26,791 MW. IEO's latest report shows that the country is expected to add about 5,981 MW of PV capacity this year, while 4,392 MW and 3,996 MW are expected to be added in 2024 and 2025, respectively.