Belarus to build two major hydropower plants by 2018

Belarus will finish building two major hydropower plants by 2018, BelTA learned from Belarusian First Deputy Energy Minister Leonid Shenets on 25 November. The statement was made during the roundtable session held to discuss Belarus-Russia cooperation in conventional, nuclear and alternative energy industries.

The Polotsk hydropower plant and the Vitebsk hydropower plant are the two power plants in question. The former will be able to generate 21.7MW of electricity, with the construction process scheduled to end in 2016. “The project is being implemented together with Russia. The work proceeds as planned. We expect the construction process to end in 2016. At present there are no factors that may delay the timeframe,” noted Leonid Shenets.

The construction of the Vitebsk hydropower plant will end in 2017. Chinese partners are helping Belarus build the 40MW power plant.

The official reminded that the quota for building renewable sources of energy will be 215MW in 2016-2018. Power plants generating energy due to the natural flow of water streams are supposed to produce 82MW of the total quota. They are followed by wind energy (50MW), energy of wooden fuel and other kinds of biomass (36MW), biogas energy (32MW), and solar energy (15MW).