ORLEN signed an agreement on September 3, 2026, with 13 other energy operators from northern and central Europe to establish the Baltic Energy Initiative, a cooperation platform that places small modular reactors among its concrete priorities. The agreement brings together fourteen signatories from Poland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Norway.
The partners involved are major players: Eesti Energia, Enefit, Fortum, KN Energies, DNV Energy Systems, Topsoe, Siemens Energy, Adven, Steady Energy, P2X Solutions, Latvenergo, Gasgrid Finland, and Ørsted. The initiative was announced at the Baltic Energy Conference in Warsaw. The scope of work spans offshore wind, LNG and BioLNG markets, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, and SMRs. The member companies intend to jointly apply for European and international funding and to present unified positions on regulation and support mechanisms.
For ORLEN, involvement in SMRs is no mere window dressing. The Polish group is targeting the commissioning of at least two SMR units with a combined capacity of 0.6 GW by 2035, through its subsidiary ORLEN Synthos Green Energy. The reference reactor is GE Vernova’s BWRX-300, which ORLEN considers the most advanced SMR design currently available. The Baltic initiative gives this plan a regional dimension: other operators bring complementary expertise, reduce financial risk for individual companies, and pave the way for cross-border projects that no single country could tackle alone.
ORLEN’s President and CEO, Ireneusz Fąfara, framed the issue plainly: the challenges facing the energy sector today are too great to be addressed by individual countries or companies acting alone. The platform is designed to pool expertise, infrastructure, and investment capacity to strengthen the Baltic region’s competitiveness. Another stated objective is the protection of critical infrastructure — a topic that has taken on concrete urgency in the Baltic area following the sabotage of undersea pipelines in recent years.
The Baltic Energy Initiative comes at a time when several Northern European countries are reassessing nuclear power after years of stepping back from it. Finland already has a solid track record with Olkiluoto 3, Sweden has formally reopened the door to new plants, and Poland is awaiting final approval for its first large-scale nuclear facility. SMRs fit into this context as a complementary technology, well suited to smaller markets or distributed sites. With fourteen operators sharing objectives, data, and access to EU funding, the Baltic Energy Initiative has the potential to accelerate the most costly development phases: licensing, detailed engineering, and supply chain buildout.
