ABSTRACT
Why did Poland, Europe’s most coal-dependent economy, in 2015 adopt highly technology-specific auctioning as its main support scheme for renewable energy, since 2016 combined with net-metering for prosumers? This chapter explains the evolution of Polish renewables policy until the end of 2016, exploring how Polish political and organizational fields have influenced the renewables support mix. The European environment has been very important for the development of renewables policy in Poland since the 1990s, but EU influence in other areas has also had repercussions for the Polish renewable energy mix. The organizational field has become consolidated, and its impact on policy has grown over time. We also find that the dominant institutional logics of the organizational ‘conquers’ the political. This is linked to the fact that in the case of Poland, it is difficult to draw a clear line between the two, although the organizational field appears dominant. Poland’s current renewable energy policy mix appears optimal for the actors that dominate the organizational field. Changing that situation would require a deep paradigm shift, with a total reversal of the political economy of the energy sector.
