Poland

The 4^th International Clean Energy Trade Show – Cenerg 2012 will take place from 12 to 14 March in Warsaw. Among others the exhibition includes heating systems based on RES like boilers, heaters and fireplaces, heat pumps, solar panels, air-conditioning systems and  geothermal energy. In 2011 Cenerg attracted more than 11,800 visitors.

The 10^th Fair of Renewable Sources of Energy ENEX - New Energy will take place in Kielce from 6 to 8 March 2012. ENEX creates the possibility to present power engineering and energy generation appliances and equipment, the latest system technologies, network components, solar collectors, wood fired furnaces, heat radiators, biomass boilers and vehicles which run on bio-fuel. In 2012 ENEX attracted almost 150 companies, among them exhibitors from Germany, Czech Republic, Italy and Sweden.

Greenpower 2012 will take place in Poznan form 8 to 10 May 2012. The exhibition includes solar energy, wind energy, hydro energy, geothermal energy, solid and liquid biofuels, biogas and energy-efficient technologies. Last year’s edition of Greenpower attracted almost 80 companies from 7 countries and was visited by 10,500 attendees.

On 22 December 2011, the Polish Ministry of Economy presented the draft of a new Renewable Energy Sources Law. It includes a renewable building obligation for the private and public sector, as well as a one-time tax deduction for private solar thermal customers (in addition to the grants offered by the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management, NFOŚiGW). The new regulations are thought to boost the Polish solar thermal market in the long term. At first, the RES Law was said to be introduced on July 1, 2012. However, delays in legislative procedures will most likely postpone the new regulations to later this year, so that they are going to take full effect in 2013.
Source: Wikipedia

The 5th Polish Solar Energy Forum 2012 will take place in Cracow on 18 April 2012. The forum is organised by the Institute for Renewable Energy (EC BREC IEO) in Warszawa under the patronages of all relevant governmental institutions. The Forum will offer the opportunity to strengthen and formalize cooperation between the production and installation companies of the solar energy sector in Poland and the EU. The Forum addresses primarily to manufacturers, distributors and installers of solar thermal systems and public and industrial investors.
This year’s topics include:

The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has announced its strategy of how to support the solar thermal sector in Poland. Five Polish regions will receive a total of Swiss Franc (CHF) 55 million, mainly to subsidise solar thermal technology. Small parts of the budget, however, will also be spent on photovoltaic systems. By using their own financial and other resources, all private households and public facilities participating in these projects will have a substantial contribution in the programme's success . Seco plans to select four more solar thermal projects and provide additional funds of CHF 50 million to set them up.

PIMOT, the Polish Automotive Industry Institute (www.pimot.pl) and ESTIF will hold a workshop about the Solar Keymark and quality assurance in Europe. This workshop will take place on 14 December 2011, from 14h to 17h30, in Warsaw, at PIMOT’s facilities. This workshop is aimed at participants from the solar thermal industry (manufacturers, distributors, installers) and from national or local authorities.

By 15 October 2011, a total of 11,386 applications have been submitted by banks within the residential subsidy programme of the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW). The monthly application rate has increased tremendously - from 15 applications in the starting month September 2010 to 1,658 in September 2011 almost one year later. The figure from October 2011 in the chart above represents only half the month, which means this year’s total collector area can be expected to climb even steeper.
Source: NFOŚiGW

Polish glass producer Press-Glas has begun constructing a new glass processing factory in Radomsko near Lodz city in central Poland, which will manufacture solar glass covers for solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic models. The new plant is expected to deliver its first shipments in spring 2012. Press-Glas is already running four glass factories in Poland. The company employs 1,500 people and reached a turnover of EUR 100 million in 2010. The photo shows the magazine of basic glass panels in the Radomsko factory. Photo: Press-Glas

The stagnation in the Polish solar thermal market in 2010 seems already ancient history: The Polish Institute of Renewable Energy - EC BREC (IEO) - expects the solar thermal market to grow by one third this year. “We estimate that up to 200,000 m² of solar collectors will be installed in Poland in 2011,” IEO President Grzegorz Wiśniewski (right) says. One reason for the upward trend is that the residential subsidy programme by NFOŚiGW has been gaining momentum. “At the beginning, the programme was subject to many limitations. It did not allow grants for collector systems in new homes and those generating energy for home heating systems,” Janusz Starościk (left), Head of the Association of Manufacturers and Importers of Heating Appliances (SPIUG), explains. “These barriers were removed in January 2011, which greatly increased people's interest in the programme”.
Photo: APIHE/IEO