Orlen CEO Daniel Obajtek announced the launch of the new "photovoltaic stations" on Thursday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s polskieradio24.pl website reported.
One of these farms, located in the northern town of Wielbark, has a capacity of 62 MW and is worth PLN 200 million (EUR 43.7 million), according to officials.
The other facility, called PV Gryf, is in the western village of Przykona. It has a capacity of 25 MW and is worth PLN 60 million (EUR 13.1 million), Orlen said.
In total, Orlen has launched 87 MW of new PV capacity, worth PLN 260 million (EUR 56.8 million) on Thursday, the Wysokie Napięcie website reported.
Moreover, PV Wielbark will be expanded to reach 70 MW by the end of the year, while 68 MW of new PV capacity will be installed next to PV Gryf in western Poland in 2024, Orlen also announced on Thursday.
PV Wielbark is expected to generate enough clean energy to power more than 30,000 homes, reporters were told.
Both facilities are overseen by Orlen’s subsidiary Energa, officials said.
Orlen to reach 110 MW of PV capacity in 2023
At the launch of PV Wielbark in northern Poland, Orlen's Obajtek told reporters: “This year our total PV capacity will reach 110 MW. Next year we’ll add a further 60 MW, and after that we’ll be launching hundreds of megawatts of new PV capacity.”
These projects will considerably increase Orlen’s existing PV capacity of 97 MW, Obajtek said, adding that the company had quadrupled its PV-generated clean energy output in 2022.
Orlen’s overall renewable energy production totalled 1.3 TWh last year, accounting for some 30 percent of the company’s total gross output, Wysokie Napięcie reported.
Multi-energy corporation
Poland’s Orlen Group owns refineries in Poland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania, has retailing businesses in central Europe, and extraction businesses in Poland, Norway, Canada and Pakistan. It also distributes natural gas and produces renewable energy.
Orlen has taken over fellow state-run firms Energa, Lotos and PGNiG as part of the Polish government’s plan to create a multi-energy corporation, according to news outlets.
In 2022, the Orlen group's consolidated sales revenue reached PLN 278.5 billion (EUR 60.8 billion), Wysokie Napięcie reported.
In February, Orlen announced a plan to invest PLN 320 billion (EUR 68 billion) in new priority projects by 2030, including PLN 120 billion (EUR 25.5 billion) in green projects, such as photovoltaics, to become “independent of fossil fuels.”
Obajtek said on Thursday that Orlen's renewable capacity would reach 9 GW by 2030.
Orlen profit to double by 2030
The company also said it expected last year's acquisitions of gas company PGNiG and refiner Lotos to help it double its core profit to about PLN 60 billion (EUR 12.8 billion) by 2030, according to the Reuters news agency.
This figure is expected to include PLN 20 billion (EUR 4.3 billion) from green projects, Polish state news agency PAP reported at the time.
(pm/gs)
Source: polskieradio24.pl, interia.pl, wysokienapiecie.pl
