The Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Gdańsk has issued an environmental decision for the Baltica 1 offshore wind farm. This means the project will be able to enter the auction scheduled for 17 December this year.

Obtaining the environmental decision for the Baltica 1 project is an important step toward achieving the goal set in the PGE Group Strategy – reaching at least 4 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2035. “This decision allows us to submit the project to this year’s offshore auction. It is a clear signal to the market that the development of offshore wind energy in Poland is gaining momentum, and domestic companies have a real chance to actively participate in this process. Baltica 1, with a capacity of 0.9 GW, is another project through which we intend to engage Polish suppliers and jointly build a strong Polish value chain,” said Dariusz Marzec, President of the Management Board of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna.

Before the environmental decision was issued, PGE Baltica — the PGE Group company responsible for offshore wind projects — carried out comprehensive natural environment studies. These made it possible to thoroughly assess the sea’s natural resources — not only in terms of geological structure and the physicochemical parameters of the water and seabed sediments, but also in relation to the organisms present in the surveyed area — the plants and animals inhabiting the seabed as well as fish, birds and mammals, including bats. All of this aims to minimize the environmental impact both during the construction stage and during the long-term operation of the investment.

The research work and the preparation of the report were carried out by a consortium of Polish contractors — the Gdynia Maritime University and MEWO, a company specializing in marine environmental measurements.

Baltica 1, with an installed capacity of approx. 0.9 GW, is being developed by the PGE Group and, if it wins a Contract for Difference in this year’s auction, will be commissioned by the end of 2032. Baltica 1 will be located about 80 km north of the Polish Baltic Sea coast, in the area of the Central Shoal, offshore from Władysławowo. The project already has a location permit and a grid connection agreement. The future Baltica 1 offshore wind farm has already undergone geotechnical and geological surveys at sea and on land, as well as wind measurements, marine current analyses and wave assessments.

PGE Baltica is a PGE Group company that serves as its competence center for the development, construction and operation of offshore wind farms. Its investment portfolio includes eight projects in the Baltic Sea at various stages of development and with a total capacity exceeding 6 GW. By 2035, in line with the PGE Group strategy, it plans — together with partners — to build offshore wind farms with a capacity of at least 4 GW, which will provide clean energy for 7.5 million households and reduce CO₂ emissions by 11 million tons. The most advanced of the projects — Baltica 2, with a capacity of 1.5 GW and a planned commissioning date in 2027 — is being implemented in cooperation with Ørsted.

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