Jo Harper
26 March 2025•Update: 26 March 2025
WARSAW
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday signed into law legislation that provides €14.5 billion ($15.6 billion) in financing for the country’s first nuclear power plant, local media reported. Warsaw needs EU approval for such a high level of state aid for the project to go ahead.
Developed by state-owned Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe, the plant will have a planned electricity generation capacity of up to 3.75 GW. US firm Westinghouse in 2022 was chosen as a partner. According to the industry minister, construction is set to start in 2028, with the first of three reactors online in 2036 and fully operational by the start of 2039.
Poland has been keen to cement commercial relations with US companies in the military, security, and energy sectors as a way of binding Washington to the East European country as US backing for NATO and the EU wanes.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition last September approved spending €4.5 billion between 2025 and 2030 on the project and in February, parliament passed a bill to that effect. This would cover 30% of the project’s total estimated costs, the rest coming in loans “from financial institutions, primarily foreign institutions supporting the export of equipment suppliers … in particular the Export-Import Bank of the United States,” the government said on its official website. In November, the United States International Development Finance Corporation signed a letter of intent to provide $1 billion in financing for the construction.
Poland generates most of its electricity from coal – last year, almost 57% of total consumed power, the highest proportion in the EU. In 2023, the former government outlined plans for 51% of electricity to come from renewables and 23% from nuclear by 2040.
Under the government’s Polish Nuclear Power Program, there will be a second nuclear power station, making a total combined of 6 and 9 GW.
