Poland has achieved a historic breakthrough in offshore wind power. The Baltic Power project, co-developed by Poland’s ORLEN Group (holding a 51% stake) and Canada’s Northland Power (holding a 49% stake), has officially begun feeding electricity into the national grid, marking the country’s first grid-connected offshore wind power generation.

Located in the Baltic Sea roughly 23 kilometres off the coastline, the project covers a sea area of 130 square kilometres and is planned to accommodate 76 wind turbines. Fifty-four turbines have so far been installed at sea; the full 350 kilometres of inter-array and export cables have been laid, two offshore substations are in place, and the first batch of units has started power generation. Full completion is expected this autumn. Once operating at full capacity, the facility will generate around 4 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually, enough to meet approximately 3% of Poland’s total power demand.

Ireneusz Fąfara, Chief Executive Officer of ORLEN, revealed that the company is advancing Poland’s largest-ever energy investment programme, totalling 380 billion zloty (equivalent to roughly 679.3 billion Chinese yuan). The plan includes boosting natural gas output to 27 billion cubic metres, constructing four offshore wind farms (with this project as the flagship), rolling out 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage capacity, and building a minimum of two nuclear reactors. Christine Healy, President of Northland Power, described the milestone as a defining moment for Poland’s wind power sector.

Fasteners manufactured and supplied by Goshen Hardware are applicable to this project.