Renaissance of wind power in Poland?

Environmental protection and sustainability were important topics for Anna Januszewska already during her school years: "That's why I am very happy to work at Prokon today," says the 40-year-old accountant at Prokon New Energy Poland's office in Gdansk in fluent German.

Prokon has been active in Poland since 2007. The headquarters is in Gdansk. There, the administration as well as project development & construction are located, with a total of five people. Another location is in Belchatow. Six employees operate from there, taking care of wind farm operation and maintenance. In Poland, Prokon operates 13 wind farms with a total of 45 wind turbines with a total capacity of over 90 megawatts. The facilities were mostly commissioned in 2012.

Since the change of government in 2015, political support for renewable energies has decreased. Expansion of wind energy in recent years seemed unlikely. That is why Prokon has also started with the development of photovoltaic systems in Poland. But under the pressure of the climate crisis, attitudes in Polish society are changing. "There are more and more people who care about sustainability," observes Anna Januszewska, "especially the younger generation is interested in it." Soon, wind power could experience a renaissance.

Jacek Cholewinski, Project Coordinator at Prokon in Poland, hopes for appropriate legislative changes and is looking forward to the comeback: "At the moment, we are mainly working on photovoltaic systems," he says, "but personally, I prefer wind energy."

For almost ten years, Jacek Cholewinski has been working for Prokon from Gdansk. He searches for sites for wind and photovoltaic installations, negotiates with owners, authorities, and suppliers. The bachelor is constantly on the move for this.

"There's never a dull moment on the trips," he says. He also enjoys travelling to the Prokon headquarters in Itzehoe: "The colleagues there are very warm and helpful, just like us in Poland."

Even Anna Januszewska drives to Itzehoe at least once a year and personally meets the colleagues with whom she often speaks on the phone: "I am often the contact person for various topics during calls from the headquarters because of my language skills."

The mother of two serves as the interface between the external accounting office in Poland and the headquarters in Germany in her job. She also takes care of the daily invoicing and payments and authorises payments. However, in the small Gdansk team, no one can restrict themselves to their own area of responsibility, everyone must step in for others from time to time. This makes the work exciting and the atmosphere is great, says Anna Januszewska. Certainly also because of Jacek Cholewinski, who says: "I often try to make my colleagues laugh with funny phone conversations."