The 1st Offshore 2012 Conference & Exhibition organised by the Polish Wind Energy Association in cooperation with the Polish Offshore Wind Energy Society was held on 10 – 11 October in Sopot. The event was attended by approximately 250 participants. 12 companies promoted themselves during the parallel Exhbition, including the Crist Shipyard from Gdańsk, Energomontaż Północ Gdynia and Siemens.
The Offshore Conference & Exhibition was an opportunity to meet key persons related to the offshore wind power sector from all over Europe: developers, investors, component manufacturers and representatives of the energy distribution sector as well as industry associations and scientists.
‘Our Offshore Conference & Exhibition is the first such a large event in Poland fully dedicated to offshore wind energy’, said Krzysztof Prasałek, President of the Polish Wind Energy Association. ‘Offshore wind energy in the Polish Baltic area has tremendous potential. If we exploit our opportunity, Poland may become one of the leaders and exporters of technology and services for the industry. This resulted in the need to organise a large conference fully dedicated to offshore wind power that will support the Polish wind energy sector in facing the challenge.’
The 11 panels included 34 papers delivered by experts who presented a comprehensive image of the offshore wind energy industry. Day one presentations features offshore wind energy market development perspectives in Poland and offshore wind energy development directions in Europe. In the “Offshore wind energy in Europe” panel Anne-Bénédicte Genachte (European Wind Energy Association) demonstrated that the European offshore wind energy market not only becomes increasingly mature, but also increasingly competitive – and, more importantly, it has space for Poland. Ruta Balthause (European Commission) discussed the position of the offshore industry in the European energy policy and NREAPs. In the “Offshore wind energy in Poland” panel the papers were presented by: Maciej Stryjecki from the Foundation for Sustainable Energy, Henryk Majchrzak from PSE-Operator, Enrique Álvarez-Uría Berros from EDPR and Artur Zdybicki from Polenergia S.A. The presentations featured fundamental offshore development barriers in Poland, the position of offshore wind farms in the policy of the government and experience with investment development to date. The panel attracted substantial attention, in particular due to the paper presented by President of PSE-Operator, H. Majchrzak, who discussed planned grid investments and the resulting capacity to connect offshore wind farms in Poland by 2025.
The second day of the Conference was dedicated to legal determinants, environmental requirements, financing mechanisms and the latest technological solutions. Furthermore, global and European trends, industry development forecast and case studies presenting experiences with offshore wind energy investments in countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany were presented. The position of the offshore industry in the energy policy of Poland and the National Renewable Energy Action Plan was presented on day two by Mariusz Radziszewski from Ministry of Economy. A valuable contribution to the discussion was made by the paper presented by Professor Zbigniew Lubośny and dr Jacek Klucznik from Gdańsk University of Technology concerning offshore wind farms in the power system.
The Offshore Conference & Exhibition is not only a reply to the entrepreneurs’ interest in the perspectives offered by the offshore industry. It is also an appeal to the politicians for a quick removal of development barriers hindering the sector, in particular in the context of the works on the new Renewable Energy Sources Act.
‘In no country the offshore wind energy sector developed without governmental support. We don’t want to complain in ten years’ time that someone else gained from the business. It would be a pity, in particular given our truly outstanding experience in shipbuilding and metallurgy’, said Bogdan Gutkowski, President of the Polish Offshore Wind Energy Society.