Poland’s Energy Regulatory Office (URE) has published the schedule for the 2026 renewable energy auctions, with a total budget of approximately (PLN 24.9 billion ($6.34 billion) covering over 76 TWh of renewable electricity.

The auctions for solar PV and onshore wind projects will take place on November 9–10, divided into two capacity categories: installations up to 1 MW and those above 1 MW.

The procurement exercises will be open exclusively to new installations, with bids evaluated solely on price. Developers must obtain an auction admission certificate through the Online Auction Platform (IPA) to participate.

Poland’s renewable energy auctions have been dominated by solar projects in recent years, with limited participation from onshore wind developers. In the 2025 auction round, the regulator awarded approximately 1.67 GW of solar capacity and 82.7 MW of wind capacity, with PV accounting for 178 of the 181 successful bids. Solar bid prices ranged from PLN 216.90/MWh to PLN 374.77/MWh across the two capacity categories.

A similar trend emerged in 2024, when solar secured 198 of 200 winning bids, compared with just two wind projects totaling 90.8 MW. Auction participation has nevertheless remained relatively subdued, with developers increasingly exploring corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) and merchant electricity sales as alternatives to government-backed support, a trend also highlighted following the 2023 auctions.

The auctions form part of Poland’s 2022–2027 renewable energy support framework, which originally targeted approximately 9 GW of new solar capacity and 3 GW of onshore wind.

Poland installed 3.6 GW of solar in 2025, according to data collected by Agencja Rynku Energii (ARE) on behalf of the country’s Ministry of Energy. The figure is down on the 4 GW of solar added in 2024 and takes cumulative solar capacity to 24.8 GW.

Separate data collected by Poland’s lone transmission system operator, Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE), says total solar capacity was as high as 25.5 GW by the end of last year. Grzegorz Wisniewski, founder and director of the Institute for Renewable Energy (IEO), explained to pv magazine that the discrepancy is likely caused by some large PV farms that were connected to the grid in December being included in PSE’s figures, while ARE’s data will account for them in 2026.