This small power plant will start operating in late 2006 on the dam lake near the Minsk-based power-cogeneration plant TETS-2. Depending on the water level the capacity of the plant will range from 250 kilowatt to 300 kilowatt. The power generated by two turbines will flow into the common power grid of the city and is estimated to be enough for over 1,500 apartments.
Similar projects have been carried out in the scope of the program of restoration and construction of water power plants. In the Minsk Region alone they work on the Vileiskoe, Zaslavskoe and Dubrovskoe reservoirs.
Another plant will be built in the city of Soligorsk soon. There are some 25 plants of the kind in Belarus with capacities from 100 kilowatts to 1,500 kilowatts.
— This power is ecologically friendly, says director of the association “Small Power Engineering” Anatoly Smirnov. — A “cold” turbine does not require fuel, hence no import of costly resources. Specialists believe the new power plant will break even in five or six years.
There is another factor adding to the economic impact of the new plant: after Belarus signed the Kyoto Protocol, any new technology allowing curbing greenhouse emission will result in additional revenues.
Silent energy stream
Minsk will have its own water power plant
