Recently, the wind industry has been strongly anticipating the enactment of amendment to the so-called Distance Act, a draft of which is currently considered by the Polish government (draft UD89). The draft amendment to the Distance Act is expected to significantly accelerate the development of onshore wind farm projects by loosening the restrictions imposed therein, and thus it is of vital importance to Poland's energy transition.

However, at the beginning of January 2025, a major controversy in the wind industry was caused by the proposed change of the Ministry of National Defense to the draft amendment to the Distance Act. These concerns focus on potential conflicts between construction of wind farms which may potentially constitute obstacles for the operations of military aviation in the Polish airspace. As per such change, the Ministry of National Defense proposed incorporation of a new provision to the Distance Act explicitly prohibiting the location of wind farms classified as air obstacles within military airport controlled zones and along military aviation routes (so-called MCTR and MRT). The Ministry asserted that the height and placement of wind turbines could interfere with military aviation, posing risks to flight operations by state aviation aircraft. This proposal aimed to ensure that military airspace would remain unobstructed by high-rise infrastructure and allow state aviation forces to perform their tasks without hindrance.

The Ministry underscored the risks associated with wind turbines, which are classified as air obstacles under Article 87¹ of the 2002 Aviation Law. These include structures that exceed specific height thresholds or obstruct air routes. Some of the wind turbines which are installed onshore can reach heights of several hundred meters, so they could potentially create significant risks for military aircraft operating at low altitudes.

It should be noted that such restrictions proposed by the Ministry of National Defense on the location of wind turbines near military airports could potentially pose further problems for the wind industry, especially in terms of planning and locating new projects, also bearing in mind that a significant portion of such military units are located within the areas where conditions for locating wind turbines are very favorable in terms of wind productivity (including, in particular, the northern parts of Poland).

However, the Ministry of Climate and Environment - which is responsible for the above-mentioned draft amendment to the Distance Act - ultimately declined to adopt the amendment proposed by the Ministry of National Defense, justifying such refusal by the fact that the existing legal framework already provides sufficient mechanisms for military bodies to secure their operational needs. Under the Act of 27 March 2003 on Spatial Planning and Development, all draft local zoning plans must be agreed with relevant military authorities. It should be noted that the position of the competent military authorities presented within the course of agreeing the content of the draft local zoning plans is absolutely binding for municipal authorities responsible for their adoption, and therefore it must be included therein. Failure to reflect it in the draft plan would constitute a significant violation of law, and it could result in invalidation of such resolution of relevant municipal council adopting given plan. At the same time, since the date of the entry into force of the provisions on the Distance Act of 20 May 2016, wind farms can be located only on the basis the adopted local zoning plans. This means that with respect to all wind farm projects covered by relevant plans, military authorities competent for agreeing the content of such plans already have fully sufficient legal tools to introduce relevant restrictions therein, especially in the areas where wind farms could potentially constitute obstacles for the operations of military aviation.

This is why in the opinion of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, the existing legal measures effectively prevent the construction of wind farms in areas that could disrupt military operations and consequently, introducing additional legislative restrictions in this respect is unnecessary. The position of the Ministry of Climate and Environment seems to be fully justified, hence it should be evaluated positively.

In any case, proper collaboration between local municipal authorities, military institutions and representatives of wind farm developers at the stage of adopting local spatial development plans are crucial for the effective development of renewable energy installations.