Administrative and Legal Conditions for the Development of Wind Power Generation Industry in Poland

Abstract

On July 15, 2016, a legal act entered into force, which electrified the business community, especially the unconventional energy industry, local government authorities, and all those who saw the development of the alternative energy sector as the only solution for the global energy crisis. This is about the Act of 20 May 2016 on Investments in Wind Power Plants, which set out the conditions, rules and procedures for the location and operation of wind farms with a power greater than the power of a micro installation, as well as the conditions for the location of housing developments (residential buildings and mixed-use buildings) in the vicinity of wind farms. This Act has been named, both by scholars of law and the media, “another special legislation”, although it is not a typical special legislation. Although it is a lex specialis in relation to the Act of 7 July 1994 – Construction Law, as well as the Act of 27 March 2003 on Spatial Planning and Land Development, its provisions, unlike any “special legislation”, do not introduce preferential conditions for investors with regard to identifying location and authorization for the project covered by it. On the contrary, they introduce a number of significant constraints in the process. The legislature’s goal of increasing the transparency of the wind farm building permit process has come at too high a cost; at the expense of violating basic constitutional standards, notably the principle of proportionality and the principle of protection of property.