Why BC Wind’s Closing Is an Inflection Point for Polish Offshore Wind

In December 2025, Ocean Winds¹  successfully reached financial close for BC Wind, its first offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea. This green financing of approximately €2 billion has been supported by a lending pool of 15 banks including the European Investment Bank (EIB). More than a single project reaching financial close, BC Wind represents a major step forward in Poland’s ability to attract large-scale international private capital into offshore wind.

Poland aims to reach 52% renewable electricity generation by 2030². With over 70% of electricity still generated from fossil fuels, mainly from coal, Poland’s energy transition implies one unavoidable reality: the country will require unprecedented volumes of long-term capital to finance renewables, and offshore wind in particular.

5.9 GW of offshore wind capacity is targeted to be installed by 2030, and 18 GW by 2040. Delivering Poland’s offshore wind pipeline in the Baltic Sea, at the scale and pace targeted by the government, demands tens of billions of euros of debt and equity, deployed efficiently, competitively and repeatedly over the coming decade.

Public funding, development banks and domestic developers, while essential, will not be sufficient to meet this challenge alone. The success of Poland’s offshore ambitions therefore hinges on its ability to mobilise international developers alongside deep and sustained commercial liquidity from international banks.

Poland benefits from a sizeable offshore wind pipeline of projects under development or construction:

• Phase I projects. In 2021, a total capacity of 5.9 GW was awarded support through an administrative decision:

• Phase II projects. In 2025, a total capacity of 3.4 GW was awarded support through the first competitive offshore wind auction³:

• Phase III projects. Large pipeline of projects under development, competing in subsequent offshore wind auctions with Phase II projects not awarded a CfD support in Round 1:

To turn Poland’s offshore wind ambitions into reality, the awarded projects are supported by one of the most robust offshore wind frameworks in Europe, as the Polish Contract-for-Difference (CfD) offers, inter alia:

• A 25-year tenor, the longest in Europe, providing exceptional long-term revenue visibility;
• Higher strike prices⁴ than other recent bottom-fixed offshore wind auctions in Europe, supporting project viability and bankability in a higher-cost environment;
• Annual indexation to Polish inflation, offering protection against macroeconomic changes and cost volatility;
• Option to peg up to 100% of CfD payments in Euro, offering protection against currency volatility;
• Offshore wind generators’ eligibility for CfD payments for curtailed output resulting from delays by the grid operator in implementing necessary grid investments required to connect the project’s full capacity to the grid, or from redispatching, providing notable mitigation against curtailment risk.

These features ensure stable, inflation-protected and currency-hedged cash flows for most of the asset’s lifetime, therefore setting an attractive framework for developers and lenders.

In emerging offshore wind markets, ECAs typically play a catalytic role by absorbing early-stage risks and anchoring first transactions. While effective for maximising liquidity, ECA-supported financings may come with less competitive terms (e.g. tenor post COD is typically capped)⁵ with more constraints on the project, especially during construction (e.g. tied funding mechanics). With financial close largely achieved with commercial banks, alongside the EIB, BC Wind represents the first project in Poland to be financed without the support of ECAs.

Also, by proving bankability under increasingly competitive conditions, BC Wind demonstrates Poland’s transition from a relatively new market to a core European offshore wind destination, rapidly accelerating convergence towards Western European markets. For developers, this convergence delivers greater financing certainty, improved economics and smoother project execution – all critical ingredients for deploying capital at the scale demanded by Poland’s energy transition.

As subsequent offshore wind projects move toward financial close, they will do so in a market that is more liquid and more confident.

As procurement costs remain high, it is imperative that financing processes are designed to support developers in securing the best terms possible (i.e. keeping financing costs as low as possible), while maintaining liquidity and expediting the time to closing. In this, BC Wind provides a case point. The use of full form documentation at launch stage, accelerating CP satisfaction processes through new practices, together with the use of other best practices developed both in Europe and Asian offshore wind financings, among other strategies and tools, all had a role to play. These methods provide good practical examples that can be deployed in future financings in Poland and beyond.

¹ Ocean Winds is the offshore wind joint-venture established in 2020 50-50 between ENGIE and EDP Renewables.
² Electricity generation from renewable energy sources is projected to reach 51.8% by 2030 and 79.8% by 2040, according to the updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) approved by the Ministry of Climate and Environment in July 2025.
³ Phase II projects not awarded a CfD support in Round 1 are left to secure support in subsequent auctions.
⁴ Phase I projects benefit from a strike price of 319.60 PLN/MWh (real 2021) i.e. 71.82 EUReq/MWh; while Phase II projects benefit from even higher prices, ranging from 476.88 to 492.32 PLN/MWh (real 2025) i.e. from 113 to 117 EUReq/MWh.
⁵ As per OECD consensus (“Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits”), the maximum repayment terms for renewable energy projects shall not exceed 22 years.