The PV boom and the Socially Responsible Business

During my quarantine, I had the opportunity to return to my childhood with my daughter. We watched «Mr. Kleks`s Academy» (or: „Professor Inkblot`s Academy”) together. The movie had its premiere in 1983! Nevertheless, it has not lost its relevance. In one of the final scenes, the iconic role of Piotr Fronczewski, who plays the title character, refers to modern technologies (English subtitles available):

Let’s learn from mistakes

Currently, renewable energy sources in Poland are trending again. We are witnessing a boom in PV projects, the law enabling the implementation of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea has entered into force. The 10H criterion will probably also be liberalized in the first half of the year, which will allow to continue development of onshore wind farm projects (more about it 👉 HERE 👈).

It is important that in the pursuit of catching the moment there is not a repeat of the situation that took place several years ago with the first boom for the development of wind energy. A small part of them were then realized in a questionable way. Too close proximity of turbines to homes, the installation of second-hand and noisy turbines and the lack of reliable environmental monitoring were the main complaints addressed to the industry at that time. Even though we are talking about a small percentage of the entire scale, this blot on the landscape prevented many great projects from being realized due to public protests. Residents expressed their concerns and successfully blocked investments – based on negative examples of poor farm implementation. Honest Investors, landowners and local communities, where these good projects did not come into being, were all losing out. 

A recipe for success

Over the last dozen years a lot has changed when it comes to wind projects. The so-called «Patho-development» is actually impossible. The legislator has clarified the regulations in many aspects (environmental, location and technical). In Poland, it is no longer possible to install used turbines, even smaller wind farms are obliged to perform detailed environmental monitoring, there are strict restrictions on minimum distances (too strict – see the 10h criterion). The above mentioned issues have been thoroughly presented in the Code of Good Practices prepared by PWEA[1].

You can see how important proper corporate social responsibility is in our work. It is important that Investors (especially recently trending photovoltaic projects) remember about honesty and partnership relations with municipal authorities, and above all with the iresidents of the place where the installations are to be implemented. Let`s listen to their positions and expectations in order to achieve a mutual compromise. Let’s not try to implement projects on the sly. A better solution is to build partnerships and a detailed consultation process.

In the following posts I will try to bring closer the topic of the development of photovoltaic projects based on corporate social responsibility and the following words of professor Kleks:

The technique is neither good nor bad in itself, Adam. It all depends for what purposes it will be used.

Best regards from Mr. Kleks`s fan,

Kamil Koczara
Development Manager
Tundra Advisory

[1] http://psew.pl/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/PSEW_Kodeks-Dobrych-Praktyk.pdf, access on 26/02/2021