This report provides an analysis of the renewable energy sector in Poland and five other eastern and central European countries—Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovak Republic, and Bulgaria (ranked behind Poland by their respective energy consumption)—with information on developments through end-2013 and the long-term market outlook. It also includes corporate news for firms including Tauron, GDF Suez, PGE, Energa, Finland’s Fortum, and Polish Energy Partners.

Poland is the largest economy in the region and its energy generation was historically based on coal. This naturally made the country the largest market in the region for green power technologies. Specific features of the country’s Green Certificates support system and the economy’s resilience to recession helped the renewable energy industry avoid most common complications seen in peer countries, in particular Romania, Bulgaria, and Czech Republic. Thus Poland has so far performed satisfactorily in meeting its green energy targets.

Investments in Czech Republic and Bulgaria have lost ground after solar-investment euphoria, and the investors in both countries face tough regulatory adjustments. While in Czech Republic the problems are related to excessive support, in Bulgaria they are broader in nature and are amplified by the problematic functioning of the market. Slovak Republic witnessed a sharp expansion of small- and medium-sized solar projects and is currently trimming down support to avoid excessive expansion. Hungary is the slowest of the six countries to increase its renewable electricity production, although actually it placed its bet from the very beginning on generating more heat from renewable resources in order to meet the overall green energy target.

Key Points:

• In corporate news, Polish power utility Tauron has launched its fourth wind farm in northwest Poland. GDF Suez has inaugurated the Green Unit biomass plant, the world's biggest power plant entirely fuelled by biomass.

• Polish power utilities PGE and Energa have agreed to buy a wind farm stake in Ibedrola from the EBRD. Finland's Fortum has suspended its investments in Poland until the government clarifies the sector’s legal framework. Polish Energy Partners (PEP) have signed an agreement with the EBRD for a loan to develop two wind farm projects.

• Over 2010–20, Poland plans to increase the generation of renewable electricity by 21.8TWh. Out of this, 12.9TWh is to be generated by wind farms and 8.2TWh from biomass plants. With 2.5GW installed in its wind farms, Poland exceeded the 2GW target at end-2012. By 2020, there is however plenty of room for investments up to the 6.65GW target.