/11th June 2014, RENEWABLE MARKET WATCHTM/
The renewable energy sector in Belarus is not developed at the moment. Contribution of photovoltaic power plants, wind power plants and biogas power plants to the country’s electricity mix is insignificant at the moment. Belarus’s photovoltaic power capacity remained relatively unchanged in the last 5 years and is below 5 MW at the end of 2013.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Targets for Belarus towards 2020 are to reduce the GDP energy intensity as compared to the level of 2005 at least by 50 % in 2015, and at least by 60 % in 2020, and to ensure the use of domestic energy resources (including renewables) in the energy balance for production of heat and electricity. The share of domestic energy resources including RES in the energy balance for the production of heat and electricity to reach 28 % in 2015, and 32 % in 2020.
The potential of wind energy in Belarus is estimated to equal 1.9 – 2.0 Mtoe per year. The potential of wind farm energy is estimated at 220 billion kWh. The potential of solar energy for electricity production is estimated at 1.0–1.25 Mtoe per year.
Belarusian developer OOO Ecological Energy, a company with Belarusian-Lithuanian-Russian capital, plans to construct a 17 MW solar power plant in Smorgon District, Grodno Region, Belarus, according to local press agency Belta. The company will invest around $40 million in the project, which will be developed in three phases. The first phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in late 2015.
Belarus’s wind power sector development was started with small wind farms, which have been put into operation at the beginning of 2004. The country’s wind power capacity remained relatively unchanged in the last 5 years and reached only 6 MW at the end of 2013.
By the end of 2015, some 25 biogas plants are planned to be built in Belarus, according to senior government officials. At present, the largest biogas plant in the country has a production capacity of 4.8 MW.
Belarus has been widely criticized for its authoritarian regime and therefore neglected by most businesses from Western Europe, UK and USA. However, Belarus has expectedly negotiated and welcome renewable energy investors from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries and China.
More information about this renewable market you may read here: Belarus Wind and Solar Power Market Outlooks
