Baltic Power Launches Scheme to Pay Fishermen Affected by Offshore Wind Farm Construction

January 2, 2025, by Adnan Memija

The developers behind the Baltic Power project have made the initial compensation payments to fishermen who conducted fishing activities in the wind farm area off the coast of Poland.

The transitional compensation scheme is valid for the construction of the offshore wind farm or until ministerial regulations are in place, said Baltic Power, a joint venture between Northland Power and ORLEN.

The scheme was introduced to compensate local shipowners for the restrictions on their fishing activities that result from the construction of the 1.2 GW offshore wind farm.

The first payments were made by the end of this year before starting works at sea.

“In anticipation of the target ministerial regulations regulating the cooperation between the offshore wind industry and the fisheries, we have launched our own Transitional Compensation Scheme for fishermen. At the same time, we are continuing our commitment to develop a final solution for the offshore wind industry in Poland,” said Jarosław Broda, Member of the Board of Baltic Power.

The amount of the granted compensation depends on the size of the fishing vessel, ranging from PLN 15,200 (approximately EUR 3,557) to PLN 48,700 (about EUR 11,397) per year. This applies to owners whose vessels operated in the time period 2018-2023 in the area of the planned wind farm and its connecting infrastructure, plus 500 metres of buffer zone.

Baltic Power also announced that it had provided a one-time compensation to the owners of recreational vessels.

In addition to the transitional compensation scheme, the project team plans to involve fishermen in offshore work at the construction site.

“Three specifically adapted fishing vessels will operate in the construction site as so-called guard vessels and will be responsible for, among other things, communicating with other vessels passing in the vicinity of the construction site,” said Jens Poulsen, Member of the Board of Baltic Power.

As of 2023, construction of the onshore infrastructure of the farm is underway, with offshore installation works starting in January 2025.

Baltic Power will be one of the first European offshore wind projects to use Vestas’ new 15 MW wind turbine, which until now has only been installed as a prototype at the Østerild National test centre in Western Jutland, Denmark.

Once completed in 2026, the offshore wind farm is expected to generate approximately 4,000 GWh per year of zero-emission electricity and cover about three per cent of the country’s energy needs, according to the developer.