Photovoltaics in Poland: a 41% increase in installations in 2023

According to the “Operating photovoltaic installations in Poland 2024” database, which was prepared by the Institute of Renewable Energy, in the first quarter of 2024 there were 4870 PV installations over 50 kW. 262 of them were farms above 0.5 MW. The total installed capacity in this group, excluding micro-installations, reached 5.4 GW. In 2023, compared to 2022, there was a 41% increase in new photovoltaic installations.

Another year, more growth

2023 was a record year for Polish photovoltaics. This concerns both the number of completed installations and the total power of the devices. 80 farms with a total capacity of 0.77 GW and 1,417 small installations (from 50 kW to 1 MW) with a total capacity of 1.1 GW were connected. Most of the installed capacity in 2023 will be solar farms above 30 MW (873 MW).

Structure and main voivodeships

The majority of photovoltaic installations operate in the capacity range of 0.5–1 MW. That’s 3544 devices (3510 are small installations, 34 are farms). However, the majority of PV farms in Poland (175 out of 262) operate in the 1-5 MW power range. The highest number of installations and their capacity is in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship (701, total capacity 887.84 MW). The next ones are Warmińsko-Mazurskie (404, capacity 544.81 MW) and Lubuskie Voivodeship (401, capacity 510.77 MW). When it comes to the number of operating farms, there are three voivodeships with the largest number. These are: Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (48 farms, total power 233.57 MW), Greater Poland Voivodeship (34, power 307.49 MW) and Lublin Voivodeship (21, power 121.11 MW).

The most important renewable energy source (RES)

Photovoltaics is the undisputed leader of RES in Poland. The total capacity of PV devices amounted to over 17 GW at the end of 2023. For comparison, the capacity of wind installations is 9.4 GW, and biomass equipment is less than 1GW (0.98).

Sourec: The Institute of Renewable Energy