Latest developments in the renewable energy sector in Belarus

In a nutshell:

Since 21 August 2015, the volume and capacity management for Belarusian renewable power plants has been subject to a quota regime. Feed-in tariffs are guaranteed for 20 years of the power plant operation and are tiered during the first 10 years based on the socalled

incrementing coefficients; during the further 10 years, the feed-in tariff remains at the same level.

As regards the functioning of the Belarusian promotion of renewable energies: “Energy transition in Belarus – New framework

conditions for renewable energies” dated 03/07/2015.

Currently, the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 305 dated 26/04/2017 revises the procedure

for determining and allocating energy generation quotas.

Overview of major changes

Regulation No. 305 redefines, among other things, the composition

of the so-called Committee for the determination and allocation of quotas for the installation of power plants generating electricity from renewable sources and significantly expands its

competencies. If, during the tender, two or more bidders submit the same bids, the Committee will be authorised to invite the representatives of the power producer to negotiate their bids.

Valid quotas will be from now on advertised on the internet website of the Ministry of Energy:

As has been long postulated, geothermal energy has been now

included in the list of renewable energy sources and is now also

subject to the quota regime.

Fair quota allocation procedure

Tenders for the allocation of quotas are organised every year.

Before the enactment of Regulation No. 305, the tender criteria

varied depending on the type of a power plant. Coefficients depend

on e.g. the type of energy source and additionally on the

capacity, life, and other power plant features. Overall, especially

the rules for weighting the individual criteria, were regarded

as ambiguous – therefore critics had extreme doubts as to the

transparency and fairness of this approach. Therefore, unified assessment criteria were introduced to assess power producers taking part in the tenders.

Figure 1 (Click to enlarge)

Overview of coefficients for state electricity purchases:

Figure 2 (Click to enlarge)

On 2 May 2017, the Republican Interministerial Committee convened in the Ministry of Energy to determine and allocate quotas for the installation of RE power plants for the year 2020.

During the convention, the Committee determined quotas for the installation of RE power plants with the total capacity of 56.245 MW, including biogas – 2.72 MW, wind – 2.5 MW, solar – 5.025 MW, hydro – 33.0 MW, woodfuels and other biomass – 13.0 MW.