Renewable energy installations implemented by energy communities

On December 9, 2023. Regulations for the selection of projects and investments under the name of RES installations implemented by energy communities were approved. They will be introduced within the framework of the National Plan for Rebuilding and Increasing Resilience, which aims to select 20 projects of energy clusters, energy cooperatives or grassroots energy communities to implement infrastructure projects for RES installations. The current budget for this part of the investment is about PLN 532 million.

Scope of support for RES installations

The object of project selection is to support investment in existing energy communities. Funding will include:

1. The construction, expansion, purchase and installation of stable sources of electricity generation from RES, together with associated infrastructure that allows the discharge of the produced energy to energy storage, the grid or directly to consumers. Stable sources of electricity generation from RES are considered:
2. Installations for generating electricity and heat from biogas (extracted from agricultural substrates, wastewater treatment plants or landfills), coupled with biogas storage facilities and cogeneration (or trigeneration) power generators from biogas or renewable synthetic gases;
3. fuel cells or hydrogen engines powered by renewable hydrogen, electrolyzers coupled to renewable hydrogen storage and fuel cells or hydrogen engines powered by renewable hydrogen, other technologies for producing renewable hydrogen and renewable synthetic gases;
4. small biomass CHP plants (up to 5 MWe) that use local biomass resources;
5. Small hydropower plants (up to 5 MWe);
6. construction, expansion, purchase and installation of other than stable sources of electricity generation from RES, together with accompanying infrastructure that allows the produced energy to be discharged to storage, the grid or directly to consumers, but only for the purpose of energy supply;
7. Purchase and installation of electric or thermal energy storage coupled to RES power generation units;
8. construction or expansion of local electricity grids and components of these grids, aimed at balancing the supply of electricity from RES with the demand for this energy, or counteracting the disruption of power grids cooperating with RES generating units;
9. Development or implementation of systems to support the management of energy or a given energy community, monitoring the operation of generating equipment and consumers, as well as energy optimization;
10. Conducting activities related to communication, information and promotion of the effects of the project in the area of local generation and balancing of demand, distribution or trading of energy.

The listed categories of eligible expenses are direct costs of project implementation. Also included in this category are the overhead costs of managing the project, known as indirect costs. They will be settled in a lump sum of 1 percent. actual direct eligible expenses incurred. The above provision applies to investments that do not receive state aid or are financed under de minimis aid rules.

Entities authorized to submit applications

Entities eligible to apply for non-refundable support for a development plan project under “Renewable energy community installations” are:

• The entity representing the selected energy cluster and at the same time being its member or coordinator;
• energy cooperative;
• A citizen energy community operating exclusively in the field of renewable energy sources.

The energy cluster venture can be implemented in a partnership formula. Partners can be members or the coordinator of the energy cluster.

The amount of funding and the conditions for providing assistance

In connection with the adoption on December 8, 2023. by the Council of the European Union of the decision on the revised Polish NIP and the new REPowerEU chapter (in the REPowerEU chapter, the B2.2.2 investment was designated as G1.1.2), which we wrote about in a previous issue of Water Matters, in an article: “Changes in the Polish KPO“, the number of selected projects has been increased from 10 to 20, and the budget for this part of the investment will be about PLN 532 million.

The minimum and maximum amount of funding per project is PLN 1 million and PLN 50 million, respectively, and the maximum level of support is 90 percent. direct eligible expenses. Support will be provided in the form of an advance or reimbursement of expenses incurred. The advance will be transferred in tranches.

Deadline and method of receiving applications

Applications are accepted from December 11, 2023 to February 29, 2024, via a form in the WOD2021 application. The current call is coordinated by the Ministry of Development and Technology.