Renewable Energy – Implications for Agriculture and Rural Development in Poland

Due to their quantitative and qualitative potential, rural areas participate to a significant degree in the achievement of the indicative targets resulting from the climatic package. Thanks to the production of biomass and, increasingly often, energy itself during the 2005–2014 period, the share of RES (renewable energy sources) in the production of primary energy grew twofold from 5.8% to 12.1%. Biomass was the main source, but since 2010 the use of wind and sun in the production of energy has been growing rapidly. Given that the costs of alternative sources for energy production (mainly electricity) are considerably higher than in case of using raw fuels, the development of this market depends on the amount of subsidies. The system applied in Poland is widely criticized because it favours large hydroelectric power plants and co-combustion, which arouses considerable environmental, technical, market and strategic controversies. Maintaining the current support system could therefore have significant implications for the structure of the market, because it is not conducive to the development of energy, based on the initiative of citizens and their communities. It remains untapped economic potential also in industrial policy and services and, in particular, in case of RES small- and micro-installations.