Biggest solar PV power plant 55 MW is launched into operation in Belarus
/16th October 2017, by pv magazine/
State-owned Belarusian oil company Belorusneft has finalized its 55 MW solar project more than three years after the initial announcement. Belarusian oil and energy group Belorusneft has announced the completion of its 55 MW PV power plant in in the Rechitsa district. According to local government-run press agency Belta, the facility, which relies on 218,000 solar panels provided by Slovenian manufacturer Bisol, is the country’s largest operational PV plant to date.
The project was launched by Belorusneft in August of 2013. Initially, the plant was expected to reach 50 MW capacity, with construction originally due to begin in 2013. These plans, however, were postponed. When the project was resumed, Belorusneft selected German-based meteocontrol GmbH to produce yield reports for a planned PV park in Rechytsa.
According to Belta, there are currently 30 operational PV power plants with a combined capacity of 41 MW in Belarus. In early October, Belarus’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Irish developer Pure Energy LLC is currently constructing a 109 MW PV power plant in the Cherikov District, Mogilev Region, in the east of the country.
On top of this, Belarus’ second-largest telecom operator Velkom announced last week that it has powered one if its base station in the Lubansky district of the Minsk region with a 14 kW ground-mounted PV system combined with a lithium-ion storage system. The PV system consists of 55 solar panels mounted on a total area of 77 square meters. The storage system, Velkom said, is expected to power the base station for eight hours. A diesel power generator was also installed at the facility, in order to ensure power supply in winter, when there are fewer hours of sun, the company added. Belarus aims to install 250 MW of PV capacity by 2020.
What are next solar PV power plants in Belarus? What is market dynamics and forecast for market development to 2026? Answers to all these questions you will find out in Renewable Market Watch’s latest Q2 2017 published report:
CIS Countries Photovoltaic (Solar PV) Market: Outlook 2017 ÷ 2026