What role does the Polish market play for IBC?
Patrik Danz: IBC Solar is active worldwide. Our focus is on the European market, although as a company based in Germany, the national market is particularly important to us. Poland is a very exciting market for us and is one of the Top Five in European photovoltaic project business. We have therefore been active in Poland for many years. The first projects were managed from the headquarters in Franconia until we founded a branch in Warsaw in 2022, IBC Solar Poland.
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How is your Polish company structured?
Our team in Warsaw currently consists of 10 colleagues, all of whom are absolute pv professionals and very familiar with the peculiarities of the Polish market. Of those employees seven are responsible for sales, the others for marketing, management and financial accounting. We started in Poland with a long-term perspective. Accordingly, we offer our employees secure jobs with sustainable growth prospects. In our opinion, the Polish energy market, whose energy system is still largely dominated by coal-fired power generation, offers long-term prospects in the roof and open space project business, but also in the distribution of components.
Central and Eastern Europe increasingly in the solar gigawatt class
What role do bureaucratic requirements play in Poland?
We don't see this as particularly dramatic. In the Polish market, commercial and industrial projects are often concerned with the implementation of self-consumption systems. For open spaces, it is usually about PPAs, i.e. direct purchase of solar power from a system by consumers. This is all manageable. A bigger problem is the limited grid capacity in Poland.
Polish Development Bank signs financing agreement with R.Power
But this a problem all over the EU, isn’t it?
Other EU countries are much more problematic. For example, the grid connection conditions for photovoltaic systems in Holland are much more difficult to implement than in Poland. However, the grid capacity in Poland often means that systems are limited in their output. In general, however, approval processes in Poland are very quick. Sometimes it can take up to three years before a system can be connected to the grid. But this also happens in other EU countries.
Strategic partnership of Menlo Electric and Sungrow
Are there some specific challenges?
What unfortunately happens in Poland from time to time is that documents get lost in bureaucratic processes. Then they have to be submitted at great expense. You should therefore stay on top of things regularly throughout the entire project and check the status of the work.
More news and insigts about the Polish market
Is IBC Solar also active as a wholesaler in Poland?
Wholesale is also an important mainstay for IBC Solar in Poland. The family home market in particular is interesting. The Polish wholesale business did well in 2022 that demand could not be met. In mid-2023, demand dropped noticeably and in 2024 sales fell sharply. But that is not a problem for IBC Solar because we know cyclical market fluctuations from our long experience. Competitors who filled their local warehouses during the solar boom are now struggling with the drop in demand.
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What role does politics play in the expansion of PV in Poland?
After the parliamentary elections in October 2023, the climate for renewable energies has improved noticeably. While the old government tried by all means to establish coal-fired power generation as the most important energy source in the long term, the expansion of photovoltaics has gained significant momentum under the new government. We expect annual growth of five to twelve percent by 2030. The new government is committed to expanding the electricity grid and is working on framework conditions that simplify and accelerate the expansion of photovoltaics.
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Your forecast for the next 24 months?
One thing is clear: growth. Not least because of the currently high share of coal-fired electricity in the Polish energy mix. Also because of the rising electricity prices and, last but not least, the rising prices for carbon dioxide emissions. The positive dynamics brought about by the new government will keep Poland in the Top Five European photovoltaic nations. We are therefore very optimistic about the Polish photovoltaic market.
Interview conducted by Manfred Gorgus.
