Bill threatens Polish wind power, warns industry, by Henry Foy and Pilita Clark. Finally, windmills are getting some serious push-back.

Poland’s thriving wind energy industry has warned that it faces bankruptcies, rapid divestment and an end to growth under a bill that threatens executives with prison.

The wind power sector in Poland installed the largest amount of turbine capacity in the EU last year after Germany, producing about 13 per cent of the country’s electricity.

The Polish government are tightening regulations:

The bill will make it illegal to build turbines within 2km of other buildings or forests — a measure campaigners said would rule out 99 per cent of land — and quadruple the rate of tax payable on existing turbines — making most unprofitable.

Another clause in the bill would give authorities the power to shut down each turbine for weeks at a time during monthly inspections, said industry figures. Violations would result in hefty fines or two years’ imprisonment. …

Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s ruling Law and Justice party, which campaigned on a promise to crack down on the industry, said it wants to make legislation on turbines more “citizen-friendly”.

Sounds like the Polish peple spoke at the last election, which the Greens won’t like. This rort of government-mandated profits for putting up windmills (“to save the planet”) was too good to last forever.