Skip to content

Survey: 52 per cent of Polish companies plan to support offshore wind energy development

52 per cent of Polish companies plan to support the development of offshore wind energy; 9 per cent of those surveyed are already involved in it, according to a BGK survey. Among the biggest beneficiaries of the construction of offshore wind farms in Poland are the shipbuilding, steel and metal industries, it added.

The so-called “local content” initiative offshore is of great interest to Polish entrepreneurs, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) noted in Monday’s information. The results of BGK’s survey show that 9 per cent of the surveyed companies are already involved in it, while another 52 per cent plan to join this group or see this as a possibility. Among the biggest beneficiaries of the construction of offshore wind farms in Poland are the shipbuilding, steel and metal industries.

“The Polish Offshore Wind Energy Association lists more than 300 Polish companies that could participate in the supply chain of farms in the Baltic Sea,” it indicated.

In contrast, around 47 per cent of the entrepreneurs already involved believe that the current scale and scope of their business is sufficient to get involved in the construction of wind farms. On the other hand, 12 per cent of respondents who are aware of the local content offshore initiative, but are only planning to get involved in it, believe that this activity will require changes to internal processes and company organisation.

– The implementation of such a complex investment may involve the need to increase employment – building new business relationships with other entities and expanding production capacity, estimated Adam Piłat of BGK, quoted in Monday’s news release. He added that entities just planning their involvement “seem to underestimate these challenges.

According to the survey, regardless of the awareness and degree of current involvement in the local content initiative in offshore, Polish entrepreneurs see prospects for themselves to participate in the production chain of wind farms in the Baltic Sea. In the group of companies familiar with the initiative and already involved, 16 per cent act as direct contractors and 53 per cent perform the function of subcontractors.

Nearly half of the surveyed entrepreneurs declare that they could be involved in the production of turbines or their components, and more than 60 per cent report a willingness to supply other parts of the power plant. Willingness to support installation work is expressed by 20 per cent of the surveyed companies, while the design and operation phases are of interest to around 10 per cent of respondents each, it added.

Source: PortalMorski.pl