News

We evaluate, we watch, we change!

23 Jan, 2025

In four years, a new container port will be built in Świnoujście. In terms of size, it is to be the second in Poland after the Baltic Hub terminal in Gdansk (pictured). Sotis Advisors will not be absent from this project either.

The new container port in Swinoujscie will be able to receive two 400 metre container ships. At the same time! These are the biggest container ships in the world, there are no bigger ones. So we are auditing this project on behalf of the EBRD. And that means that we assess the progress of the work several times a year: we talk to the workers on site, representatives of neighbourhood councils, local institutions such as the nursing home or the community library. We welcome successes – the social conditions for the women working on the construction site have improved thanks to our talks. That’s not all, we are also evaluating the impact of the project from the point of view of users of Stogi beach and the surrounding business community. The project is growing and will have a real impact on reducing CO2 emissions.

Photo: Baltic Hub

When a project turns into reality….

21 Jan, 2025

What do we feel when we see that a project we have been involved in is taking shape? Joy, great joy, ladies and gentlemen!

Joy and pride! A factory for offshore wind towers is being built on the site of the Gdansk Shipyard. The investment is to support the development of offshore wind energy in Poland and Europe. The first photo shows a visualisation and the next one shows that the assembly of the largest poles has been completed. Congratulations! We congratulate you, but we are also very happy that the project in which we were involved, and more specifically prepared the environmental and social ‘bankable’ analyses, has come out of the paper phase and something that was just an architects’ vision is starting to resemble a factory.

The construction of the offshore tower factory is being carried out by Baltic Towers Sp. z o.o., which is the result of cooperation between Agencja Rozwoju Przemysłu S.A. and the Spanish company GRI Renewable Industries, S.L. The plant is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2025, and up to 150 structures are to be built there annually.

Photo: Investmap.pl

We design, the company implements

27 Nov, 2024

Behind us are further meetings with fishermen in Ustka, Leba and Wladyslawowo, during which Baltic Power, a joint project of ORLEN and Northland Power, proposed implementing a transitional compensation scheme for operators of commercial fishing boats that have their fishing grounds in the area of the future construction of the offshore wind farm and the export cable route. It also includes operators of recreational fishing boats. The system was designed by Sotis Advisors in cooperation with MIR-PIB.

We have been working on behalf of Baltic Power since April of this year, including conducting public surveys and participating in meetings with fishermen, public administration, designing the transitional compensation system, and receiving and reviewing compensation applications. At the last meeting, held on October 18-20 in Ustka, Leba and Władysławowo, Baltic Power representatives discussed, among other things, the details of the interim compensation system. It is valid for the duration of the construction of Baltic Power’s offshore wind farm, or until the introduction of legal regulations developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in cooperation with the Ministry of Climate.

The Baltic Power farm (~1.2GW), located at Łeba and Choczew, is expected to cover up to 3 per cent of the country’s energy needs, which corresponds to the needs of more than 1.5 million households in Poland. It is the only project that has reached the construction phase. The onshore part of it is currently underway, and an offshore installation campaign will begin in 2025. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

“Every meeting with the fishing community deepens our knowledge of this economic sector, we better understand the concerns and problems of fishermen, we establish better and better relations based on mutual trust and we are all waiting for official regulations that will objectify the compensation mechanism for all offshore wind farm developers. We have prepared an interim compensation scheme in a few months by developing different variants in the meantime, while everyone has been waiting for the official regulations since September 2021. We realise that it is not perfect or solves all the problems, but it is there and that is the most important thing for the moment. We can keep learning!” – says Anita Kuliś of Sotis Advisors.

Photo Baltic Power