Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor has begun testing power generation at Zagórzyca, a 60MW solar plant in Poland and the company’s second project in the country.

Located in the Damnica municipality, the solar plant was developed and will be operated by Wento, a renewable power producer and 100% subsidiary of the Norwegian company.

The plant is powered by 111,000 solar panels on a 55-hectare site, with 500 temporary jobs created during its construction.

Equinor acquired Wento and its 1.6GW pipeline of solar projects in 2021. By 2023, two solar plants were operating in the country and a third is now under construction.

With an operating life of 30 years, the Zagórzyca solar plant will generate 61 gigawatt-hours of clean energy annually, equivalent to the energy consumption of 31,000 Polish homes.

Danske Commodities, a trading house of the company, has been given responsibility for selling the energy to the Polish power market.

Equinor Renewables onshore and markets senior vice-president Olav Kolbeinstveit stated: “Today we inaugurate our second solar plant Zagórzyca, doubling our solar capacity in Poland to around 120MW. Our first solar plant, Stępień, is already in commercial production and another one, Lipno, will be commissioned in 2024.

“We are also maturing other opportunities within onshore renewables and battery storage in Poland, in line with our market-driven power producer strategy.”

In March 2023, Equinor and Petrobras entered a letter of intent to assess seven offshore wind projects in Brazil. These projects are expected to have 14.5GW capacity of clean energy annually.