Communal autonomy makes daring challenge

Dom Park residential district to be built in Minsk’s Sokol suburb, generating own electricity, heat and water while selling excess of heat and electricity to state

By Svetlana Devyatkova

 

Let there be light!
To receive cheap electricity, various alternative energy sources are being united under a single hybrid system called ‘Pargues’. It will ensure that the Dom Park (House Park) residential district can produce its own light and heat from a unit combing wind and hydraulic power generators. The buildings are to be of an unusual shape, like a cross or windmill from above, allowing wind from any direction to be ‘caught’ and channelled to rotate a wind turbine. An aero-hydrodynamic turbine will join the process, activating an electrical generator to produce electricity. It’s planned that the residential district will completely satisfy its own needs for electricity and heat. This will save the state $35m over 25 years, since utilities are currently subsidised.

Biogas prospects
The world has long understood the benefit of recycling waste; in Belarus, discussions on organic waste processing began in 2007. By 2008, the first bio-gas units had come into operation, designed to process sewage to generate heat and electricity. The first such unit is now being launched at a Belarusian residential block, with communal waste processed beneficially, turned into synthetic gas via special units.

Convenient parking
Not only heat and electricity influence our quality of life; clean drinking water, fresh air, modern conveniences and a pleasant environment play their role. Dom Park residential district is being built on a hill, not far from a water reservoir, and is surrounded by woods. Water is to be taken from two wells while fresh air will be taken from the upper level of the buildings, being purified and recirculated through the buildings via the recovery system.

Serpentine car parking areas are envisaged at the centre of the buildings, with each resident able to park on their own floor. Seven playgrounds are planned for the residential district, as well as roller-ski tracks with an underground recuperative speleo-complex, a fountain with cascades, public gardens and greenery. Last year, the project won the Republican contest for innovation.

Project price
The site is to be constructed using investment capital, with injections of $44.2m. Dom Park enterprise has already allocated $1.4m, with construction to be launched next autumn.

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