Draft new act liberalising the rules for the location of onshore wind farms has been signed by President Andrzej Duda. The liberalisation of the 10H rule assumes that new wind energy facilities may be built at a distance not less than 700 m from residential development and only on the basis of a local spatial development plan.
The Act Amending the Wind Energy Investments Act and certain other acts has been signed by the President. In accordance with the new rules, wind turbines may be located only on the basis of a Local Spatial Development Plan (LSDP) at a minimum distance of 700 m from residential buildings. The exact distance between 10H (tenfold the turbine tip height) and 700 m from development will be determined on the basis of the outcome of the strategic environmental impact assessment (SEIA) carried out within the LSDP procedure. Municipalities cannot waive the SEIA.
Furthermore, the Act lays down minimum distance between wind turbines and power lines. The amendment maintains the 10H rule for national parks and establishes a limit of 500 metres for nature reserves. For other forms of nature conservation, the distance is to stem from the environmental decision for a given installation. The Act maintains the ban to build wind turbines in national parks, nature reserves, landscape parks and Natura 2000 sites. It completely repeals the ban on construction of residential buildings in the vicinity of existing wind farms.
In accordance with the new regulations, a wind farm investor will offer at least 10 percent of installed capacity to inhabitants of the municipality where the wind farm is to be built to be used in the capacity of a virtual prosumer.
The original, governmental draft Act amending the Wind Energy Investments Act provided for a 500 m minimum distance between wind turbines and development admissible under certain conditions. The Sejm increased the distance to 700 metres.