This year’s tenth anniversary of the company’s existence on the Polish market coincides with the president’s signing of the Act on investments in wind power plants.

 

“Polish legislators have introduced an unconventional solution which consists in setting a fixed distance to separate buildings from windmills.  The said distance is established very strictly and equals ten times the total height of the wind power facility (with the propeller). Considering the current standards in respect of wind power equipment, the distance will need to be not shorter than 2 km (on average, power plant facilities are approx. 200 meters high). In our view this regulation is not supported by any studies that could justify imposing that requirement due to potential emissions. Other countries have not introduced such severe restrictions. As a consequence, the areas that are eligible for wind farms will dwindle to several per cent of the Polish territory,” comments Marta Oryl, legal department leader, Vortex Energy Polska.

 

“According to our studies, it will be possible to erect windmills in three locations of the Zachodniopomorskie region, at the maximum,” says Adam Pantkowski, the chairman of the management board, Vortex Energy Polska.

   

The representatives of the company also comment on the changes in the tax treatment of wind power plants.  

“Under the current regulations only the structural elements of the facility, namely the foundations and the tower, but not the generator, are subject to tax. However, these rules have been amended. Now,according to our estimates, the tax on building a wind power facility will increase threefold,” says Marta Oryl.

 

“In conventional power plants only the structure, and not the generator, is subject to taxation.  This shows that various energy generating sources have different tax treatments,” adds Adam Pantkowski.

 

Vortex Energy builds wind farms and photovoltaic modules in Poland and in Germany, it manages such structures and trades in electricity.  The company operates in the form of a Polish-German holding. The Polish entity employs 70 individuals working on both Polish and German projects. Vortex Energy is now headquartered in the Oxygen office building, but next year the company plans to move to its own premises at al. Wojska Polskiego.

 

mab