Building begins on ‘new chapter’ in Poland’s offshore wind sector

The scope for 2026 includes the installation of 100 monopiles, transition pieces, offshore substations components, subsea cables and supporting infrastructure. More than 20 vessels will be deployed, including one of the world’s largest installation vessels, Thialf.

Works began with rock laying, a key part of the seabed preparation, which was done with specialised vessels placing layers of carefully selected rock across designated seabed areas. Van Oord was hired to do the work, and will deploy four of its dedicated vessels that can work at high precision even in very deep waters thanks to their Dynamic Positioning Systems. 

They will install more than a million tonnes of rock as scour protection, around 400,000m³, on the seabed.

In spring the work will shift to the transport and installation of the monopiles, transition pieces and offshore substation components, which is when Heerema’sThialf will make her appearance in the Baltic Sea with a stream of support vessels.

In the following months, work will continue with the installation of export and inter-array cables and in 2027, wind turbine installation will continue, together with the outfitting of the offshore substations, when the first power – 1.4GW – is expected to be delivered to the Polish power system.

Disappointing bids

While the Polish government is clearly enthusiastic about developing its Baltic Sea offshore wind sector, bids fell short in the country’s recent auction.

However according to the Norwegian Offshore Wind organisation, it is still showing strong ambitions with a target of 18GW by 2040. Projects totalling 9.3GW have secured Contracts for Difference, it says, and 4.9GW is either ready to build or in construction.

“The Polish offshore wind market is entering a decisive execution phase,” said  Jakub Budzyński, CEO of the Polish Offshore Wind Industry Chamber (PIMEW). “Projects with several gigawatts of capacity are already under construction or have reached final investment decision (FID), and by 2030 around 6GW is expected to be installed in the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone of the Baltic Sea. At the same time, further projects with a total potential of approximately 12GW are advancing through the development phase, supporting the long-term objective of reaching 18 GW by 2040.”