Our promise towards a carbon-neutral future EconiQ Consulting supports customers addressing their unique environmental performance needs Meet IdentiQ™ digital twin for sustainable Service is our commitment to the world’s largest existing installed base and the future of the energy system Accelerating a clean energy transition with a range of solutions for solar Discover the people and technologies behind the multiple pathways towards a carbon-neutral future Advancing a sustainable energy future for all we are co-creating global and local solutions to benefit society Get in-depth insights on topics and trends in the energy sector from industry thought leaders in this animation series about the world of electricity and sustainable energy Diversity and inclusion are the core of our success Grid integration technology will connect the country’s largest and first subsidy-free solar plant to the national grid today announced it has won an order from Windtel to provide a high-voltage grid connection for the 65 megawatt (MW) Witnica Solar Park in northern Poland Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ scope of supply includes substation design The substation comprises many high-voltage products made by Hitachi ABB Power Grids companies These include circuit breakers and combined (current-voltage) transformers to increase substation efficiency and ensure its safety; and RTU560 remote terminal units which connect substation components to the solar park’s control system to provide invaluable real-time operational data Hitachi Energy is a global technology leader that is advancing a sustainable energy future for all industry and infrastructure sectors with innovative solutions and services across the value chain we pioneer technologies and enable the digital transformation required to accelerate the energy transition towards a carbon-neutral future We are advancing the world’s energy system to become more sustainable flexible and secure whilst balancing social Hitachi Energy has a proven track record and unparalleled installed base in more than 140 countries we employ around 38,000 people in 90 countries and generate business volumes of approximately $10 billion USD You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience the model is based on GIS and can be adapted to different market conditions The researchers applied it to the Polish market and found that 3.61% of the country’s available land can host utility-scale PV systems The 65MW Witnica project is among Poland’s first unsubsidized PV projects Researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences have developed a novel method for analyzing land eligibility and performing techno-economic assessments of utility-scale PV systems The new approach, which the researchers called SpatIo-temporaL scIentific ComputatiONs (Silicon), is based on a geographic information system (GIS) which helps analyze geographical cells at a spatial resolution of 100 m “To tackle the issue of country-specific cost elements the model incorporates a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) breakdown often used by governmental and intergovernmental organizations,” the research group clarified “The proposed approach can be utilized to develop national and regional strategies focused on large-scale PV installations facilitating the attainment of renewable energy goals.” The method comprises two main modules: one intended to analyze land eligibility and another one focused on techno-economic assessment A raster dataset is a GIS dataset format that represents data as grids of cells or pixels and is ideal for continuous phenomena like elevation and temperature making it suitable for marking data like roads and cities geometries are either expanded through the application of a buffer or converted into a raster format,” the researchers said map pixels representing the geographic extent of the country are assigned binary values exclusions pertaining to the availability of land are applied to indicate buffer distances and land specifications.” The model is trained to find an area that will fit a utility PV system the method knows not to place a system within a 5 km distance from an airport 120 m from power lines and 200 m from bird protection areas It also excludes geographical areas with elevation above 2,000 m or slopes above 30 degrees The output of this first step is all the eligible land that a country might offer for large scale PV deployment This output is then used as an input in the techno-economic assessments model which yields results such as the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) in the same resolution of 100 m To make that calculation applicable to different economic zones “The second component relies on established financial concepts and the levelized cost of electricity,” the academics further explained noting that the costs can be transformed into formulas adaptable to various case studies the scientists applied it to Poland and found that around 3.61% of the country's available land may host utility-scale solar PV systems corresponding to an area of about 11,277.70 km2 that area can be used to host a PV capacity ranging from 394.64 GW to 563.77 GW The results also indicate the LCOE could range from €0.043 ($0,045)/kWh to €0.049/kWh it was found that most of the suitable sites for the deployment of utility-scale PV systems are concentrated in four regions located in the central and western parts of Poland (Ło´dzkie “These regions account for more than 50% of the total capacity and electricity production potential Mazowiecki represents around 20% of the installable capacity potential.” The new approach was introduced in the paper “A GIS-based method for assessing the economics of utility-scale photovoltaic systems,” which was recently published in Applied Energy More articles from Lior Kahana Please be mindful of our community standards and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy. × The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this Close Power purchase agreements (PPAs) are growing in popularity in Poland due to high energy prices and the declining appeal of renewable energy auctions regulatory changes have created uncertainty and reduced attractiveness The Polish PV market has boomed in recent years but there were not so many corporate and utility solar/wind PPAs given the competition with the auction system exorbitant energy prices last year have changed the equation with the majority being corporate PPAs (10 out of the 13 announced in 2022),” said Ann Cocquyt “We even saw some projects deliberately stepping out of the CfD scheme to go for a cPPA instead an example of this the V-Ridium PPA with T-Mobile Polska.” The uptake in the most recent renewables auctions was disappointing “The competition and low bid prices versus increasing capex are the main reason for the undersubscribed auctions,” Cocquyt told pv magazine “Solar PPA activity definitely picked up as the [contract-for-difference] strike prices failed to keep up with the wholesale market prices and there remains limited risk appetite for long term profile risk on the utility side.” She said there is a solid demand from corporates but the question will be at what prices and for what tenors as that will define whether it will be sufficient to replace the contract-for-difference option price hedging against rising electricity costs and sustainability efforts are expected to continue to drive the PPA demand “There have been several important regulatory changes that make the circumstances uncertain and less attractive,” Cocquyt said “There is a revenue cap in place until 30 December 2023 with a level far below €180/MWh which was suggested by the EU.” The PLN 355/MWh ($83.50/MWh) revenue cap for PV installations with capacity over 1 MW was introduced in November 2022 This required all installations selling electricity under PPAs above the auction reference price to pay a tax on earnings exceeding this amount The solution faced criticism for significantly impacting solar plant profitability “There has been an intervention in the balancing market (regulating prices) and an abolition of the exchange obligation for the day-ahead volumes turning the day-ahead market potentially less liquid and pricing less transparent,” Cocquyt said “This might have a negative effect on the long-term appetite from both utility off-takers and investors.” Additional new regulations are expected in the Polish PPA space in the coming months including potential permits for the construction of direct lines in connection with the supply of energy under PPAs More articles from Marija Maisch