*2.1. WE: A Brief History*

WE has been used by humans for a really long time, alongside sunlight, e.g., to dry agricultural crops. It is also worth remembering that important geographical discoveries were possible thanks to WE that "powered" sailing ships [47,48].

In early 2000 BCE, Egyptians used WE to propel their boats. The Code of Hammurabi (circa 1750 BCE) shows that WE was also used in Persia. In India, in the fourth century BCE, the first windmill was used for pumping water and already in the second century BCE in China windmills were used to irrigate farmland. At the beginning of our era, the first windmills were constructed in the Mediterranean countries [48].

The first European windmills appeared in England in the 9th century, in France in the 11th century, and in the 13th century they became popular in all Western Europe. The oldest image of a windmill in Europe is on the first page of an English manuscript from 1270. Originally, the windmill was a wooden "booth" that was rotated around a centrally located pole to set the wings to the wind. The revolution in the construction of windmills was made by the Dutch, who in 1390 introduced four-wing structures. The "Dutch" type windmills gained popularity in Europe in the 17th century [48].

The industry became more interested in wind power plants in the early 1980s. As an initiative of Danish power companies, a turbine with a capacity of 660 kW was developed. The following years were marked by the resolution of many technical problems related to the generator's construction, mechanical strength, and the selection of appropriate

materials for the towers and rotor blades. In the last 20 years, a real "boom" in aero energy in the world has been happening [48].

The first Polish wind turbines were erected in the 1930s in Podkarpackie, a region in the south-east of Poland. Before the outbreak of World War II, 504 wind turbines were in operation in Poland. The first Polish wind potential map was published in 1958 in the book by Rynkowski entitled *Small Wind Farms*. The first wind turbine in Poland based on the new technology was erected in 1991 in Zarnowiec, a village in the north of Poland, ˙ as a replacement for the existing hydroelectric power plant. The first Polish wind farm (6 × 800 MW) was built in Barzowice in Pomerania Voivodeship in 2001 [48].

### *2.2. WE in Poland and Pomerania Voivodeship*

Until 2016, WE was developing well in Poland (Table 2). As a result of the entry that went into force in 2016 regarding the act on investments in wind farms, there was a stagnation on new WE projects. The barrier is the inability to meet the requirement of a minimum distance of 10 × H (H = total height of the wind turbine with the blade in full elevation) from the buildings [49,50].


**Table 2.** Dynamics of the WE market in Poland [51].

The progressive inclusion of the most advanced projects in 2018–2020 has resulted in an increase in new onshore wind farm capacity seen in late 2020 and 2021. As a result, the installed capacity potential increased to approximately 6.80 GW [52] and in the next two or three years it is planned to exceed 10 GW [52]. The government's announcements of distance regulation are likewise positive, with the expectation of another investment "boom" of 3–4 GW by 2025 [53].

The strategic objective is to maximize the potential of Polish onshore wind energy. By 2030–2035, the Polish Wind Energy Association (PWEA) [48] anticipates that Poland will be able to generate 22–24 GW of energy from wind [53]. Clean electrical energy derived from the most sustainable RE sources is important to maintain the Polish economy's international competitiveness. Every single additional gigawatt to wind farm capacity results in significant cost savings. It has a direct effect on the wholesale price of electricity, which has decreased by an average of more than PLN 20/MWh on the wholesale market since 2007. Poland's energy system appears to be defying global trends. Fossil fuels—hard coal and lignite—continue to account for a share of domestic output; nonetheless, the share of RE continues to expand. In 2020, coal's proportion in the energy mix fell below 70% for the first time in history. In 2020, over 28 TWh of electricity was generated from RE sources, including nearly 16 TWh from WE. Poland's energy production is becoming increasingly uncompetitive as CO2 emissions and domestic coal costs continue to grow. WE is the most advantageous alternative to fossil fuel based energy production [54].
