Solid interest in Belarus-Germany alternative energy projects

Germany is interested in accomplishing alternative energy projects together with Belarus. The possibilities were discussed at the meeting of Grodno Oblast Governor Vladimir Kravtsov and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Germany to Belarus Wolfram Maas on 17 February, BelTA has learned.

German economy representatives believe there are great opportunities for developing alternative power engineering in Belarus. Renewable resources allow generating energy out of wooden sources — waste wood. There are interesting projects that German businessmen would like to discuss, said the Ambassador. The number includes proposals that allow switching to wood from natural gas and allow resolving the problem of accumulating energy from renewable resources.

In turn, Grodno Oblast Governor Vladimir Kravtsov remarked that the oblast was very much interested in the projects. “At present Grodno Oblast receives 25% of its energy from renewable sources, primarily wood chips. It is necessary to produce at least 30% of energy from alternative sources,” he said. Therefore, projects to tap into solar energy, wind and biogas are being implemented. The experience that has been used for that has been borrowed, including from Germany. The production of fuel pellets out of waste wood is on the rise in the oblast. However, the domestic consumption is small for now because boiler rooms have to be refitted to start using them. “In the future we would like to expand the area where waste wood is utilized. Negotiations with China on installing solar cells are in progress. Germany’s experience of building powerful facilities that utilize biogas is interesting,” said Vladimir Kravtsov.

The meeting also touched upon other avenues of economic cooperation. The sides talked over the establishment of joint advanced processing ventures and the export of their merchandise, cooperation in food industry, poultry production, and retail.

At present there are 23 enterprises with German capital in Grodno Oblast. In January-September 2013 Grodno Oblast received $3.6 million in foreign direct investment from Germany, including $0.6 million as net FDI.