Geothermal Resources, Country Update for Belarus

Abstract

At present only a direct use of geothermal energy resources is available in Belarus and no installations for the electricity production. All geothermal installations are based on heat pumps technology. Their total installed capacity is approaching to 6 MWth and their number is estimated around 100 – 110. As existing regulations didn’t require registering them in the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment Protection, their actual number is not available. The biggest installation with the total capacity of 1 MWth was put into operation at the autumn of 2010 at the Greenhouse Complex - Berestye, located close to the Belarus-Poland border in the eastern suburb of the Brest town. The fresh warm water of 24 ᵒC is pumped out from a single deep borehole and supplied for two heat pumps of 505 KWth each. This installation provides heating of around 1.5 – 2 ha of greenhouses. Other heating installations were put into operation for a number of cottages, small industrial buildings, for a local hospital, one church, a frontier point, etc.