Poland: Full steam ahead for the implementation of the Polish Hydrogen Strategy - Recent legislative developments

In brief

The implementation of the Polish Hydrogen Strategy, adopted by the Polish government in November 2021,¹ naturally requires a number of legislative actions aimed at the creation of a stable regulatory environment. This should remove barriers to the development of the hydrogen market and encourage a gradual increase in investments in this sector.

Following the amendment of the Act on Electromobility and Alternative Fuels,² which entered into force at the end of 2021 and introduced, among others, measures related to the infrastructure of hydrogen refueling (i.e., adopting a definition of “hydrogen station”), the Polish government continues to develop a regulatory framework related to hydrogen. From a series of recent legislative proposals that are currently under development, we set out below a brief summary of the most significant drafts.

Draft amendment to the Energy Law and certain other laws, which, according to information published in April 2022 on the “List of legislative and programmatic work of the Council of Ministers,”³ foresees the following, among others:
1. Introduction of a legal definition of “hydrogen”.
2. Adaptation of Construction Law regulations to hydrogen infrastructure solutions.
3. Formulation of provisions related to hydrogen networks.

This amendment is an important part of a broader package of legislative proposals called “Constitution for Hydrogen,” of which the second significant pillar is as follows:

Proposal of “The law on promoting hydrogen generation from low-carbon sources”.
1. The proposed draft, according to the Ministry of Climate and Environment,⁴ will include provisions creating an incentive system for low-carbon hydrogen production in Poland. Work on this project, as publicly available information from June 2022 provides, should begin later this year.

In addition, the following projects, both (as of September 2022) currently at the stage of inter-ministerial arrangements, public consultations and opinion gathering, should be taken into account:

Draft amendment to the Act on Renewable Energy Sources and certain other laws,⁵ proposing the following, among others:
1. Definition of “renewable hydrogen,” which will be understood as “hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources in a renewable energy facility”.
2. Introduction of guarantees of origin for renewable hydrogen.
Draft amendment to the Act on bio-components and liquid biofuels and certain other laws,⁶ proposing the following, among others:
1. Definition of “biohydrogen,” which will be understood as “hydrogen produced from biomass, including that produced from biomethane”.

Besides the above-mentioned acts, the Ministry of Climate and Environment⁷ also currently focuses on preparing a series of technical ordinances concerning, among others, the following matters: