Poland Holds 40 GW Solar Backlog as Grid Pressure Mounts

Poland’s solar sector is sitting on a record pipeline: more than 40 gigawatts of projects are waiting to connect to the national grid, nearly double the country’s installed solar capacity of 21.8 GW recorded in the first quarter of 2025.

August data from Warsaw-based research institute Instytut Energetyki Odnawialnej (IEO) put the number of projects that have already obtained technical connection approvals at 6,450 — down from roughly 7,700 at the end of last year. Analysts at IEO caution that the drop does not signal a cooling market. The institute applied a stricter screening method, removing projects whose grid-connection terms had expired after two years or whose contracts were older than four years. Once inactive entries were stripped out, the cumulative capacity of the remaining queue actually increased by more than 7 GW.

The sheer scale of the backlog highlights growing structural pressures on the Polish power system:

• large projects face limited access to transmission and distribution infrastructure;
• curtailment is rising as the grid struggles to absorb available renewable output.

Those findings echo broader European trends. SolarPower Europe has pointed to permitting delays, diminishing policy support across the continent, and a shortage of grid flexibility as factors dragging on renewable deployment.

For Poland specifically, a queue nearly twice the size of current installed capacity could sharpen competition in future renewable auctions. IEO analysts note that scenario depends on whether auctions are announced in 2026 or 2027 — the country’s energy regulator URE has yet to publish a confirmed schedule.

Source: PV Magazine