Poland has cut coal's share of power generation from 95% to roughly 55% in a decade, with renewables generating over 30% of the country's power last year. That mismatch is already producing negative prices and turning battery storage into one of the country's biggest investment opportunities.Ed is joined by Tomasz Sęk, Founder and COO of R.Power Renewables, which holds a 1.7GW / 6.3GWh capacity-market-secured storage portfolio, one of the largest in Poland, to unpack how the country's power market is transforming.They ...
Poland has cut coal's share of power generation from 95% to roughly 55% in a decade, with renewables generating over 30% of the country's power last year. That mismatch is already producing negative prices and turning battery storage into one of the country's biggest investment opportunities.
Ed is joined by Tomasz Sęk, Founder and COO of R.Power Renewables, which holds a 1.7GW / 6.3GWh capacity-market-secured storage portfolio, one of the largest in Poland, to unpack how the country's power market is transforming.
They cover:
- Why coal's inflexibility, not its shrinking market share, is now Poland's biggest driver of negative prices and battery arbitrage.
- How Poland's capacity market is evolving as de-rating factors and CapEx fall together, and what that means for the next wave of battery investment.
- Why R.Power blends floor-plus-profit-share deals — including its new Axpo agreement — with full-toll contracts to balance risk and upside
- How solar PPAs are evolving into Hybrid PPAs, as corporates like Amazon and Cisco look for more flexible, peak-shifted power
- How R.Power plans to bring its 1.7GW / 6.3GWh capacity-market-secured portfolio online within 18–24 months, and what's setting the pace
Want to go deeper on the Polish power market? Ask Ko, Modo Energy's AI analyst, for the latest on Polish battery revenues, capacity market results, and grid dynamics: https://modoenergy.com/product/ko?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast_apps&utm_campaign=tomasz_sek&utm_content=ko_signup
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:08 Poland's Coal-to-Renewables Shift
1:57 Perception vs Reality of Poland's Energy Mix
4:52 Negative Prices and Coal's Inflexibility
5:58 Gas Peakers vs Battery Storage
7:45 Poland's Vertically Integrated Power Market
8:46 Day-Ahead vs Intraday Trading in Poland
9:54 Choosing a Route-to-Market Partner
12:06 Capacity Market Explained
13:21 R.Power's 1.7GW / 6.3GWh Portfolio
13:57 De-Rating Factors and Falling CapEx
17:00 Dunkelflaute and the Case for Gas
17:21 The Axpo Deal: Floor Plus Profit Share
19:51 Solar PPAs and the Rise of Hybrid PPAs
20:26 Multi-Technology PPAs and Peak Shifting
22:00 What's Slowing Poland's BESS Rollout
23:46 Poland's Grid Queue vs Texas and China
24:51 One Regulatory Fix: Faster Auctions
26:50 Poland's Cost Advantage
