|
|
By Alexei
Nesterenko and Yelena Krasney (ECOLINE Belarus) This article provides an overview of the various domestic sources of energy that could be developed in Belarus. When information is available, existing government plans for the development of these resources are provided. Oil, gas, coal and peat | Renewable energy sources | Nuclear power | Bibliography Belarus is poor in most of these resources and needs to rely on imports. There is a low potential for significantly developing most of these resources in the near future. Oil and casing-head gas. Oil deposits are concentrated in the Pripyat' depression in southern Belarus, with an oil-bearing area of about 30 thousand km2. The initial extractable oil resources are estimated to be equal to 362.1 million tons. Currently, oil extraction in Belarus is shrinking. In is expected that by 2005 extraction of domestic oil in Belarus will be two times lower than in 1997. Respectively, import of oil and gas from Russia will rise by 50%, which means that Belarusian energy sector will mainly rely upon imported oil and gas rather than on domestic sources of these fuels. Peat. Over 9000 peat deposits exist in Belarus, with initial peat reserves of 5.65 billion ton. In 1997 the total amount of extracted peat was about 1 million equivalent fuel. (1 kg of equivalent fuel is equal to 29 MJ or 27,773 BTU).[1] The extracted peat is used partly for production of fertilizers and partly as a municipal fuel. It is anticipated that peat extraction in 2005 will be 5% lower than in 1994. Shale. By quality, Belarusian shale is not an efficient fuel due to its high ash content and low combustion heat. Brown coal. As of January 1992, three brown coal deposits were known of in Belarus. The coal is suitable for use as a municipal and household fuel. Exploitation of brown coal deposits in the near future is unrealistic because environmental problems caused by open-mining are unsolved. Belarus has the potential to
develop several renewable energy sources., including
small hydroelectric power plants, wind energy
installations, bioenergy installations or biogas
installations, solar water heaters, installations for
briquetting and burning of plant cultivation wastes.
These technologies could help Belarus meet its energy
needs. However, the high cost of developing some of
the sources may make wide-scale development unrealistic
in the near future. Hydroelectric power resources The main existing plans for the development of small-scale hydroelectric power generation are
The hydropower unit capacity will be within the range from 50 to 500 kWt. Wind power resources The main direction of the use of wind energy installations (WEI) in the nearest future will be for pump drive installations and for heating water for agriculture. These application areas have minimum requirements for the quality of electric power (stability of frequency and voltage), which allows for simple WEI and makes them cheaper. It is especially promising to use WEI for pumping water for small-scale hydroelectric power plants. Economically sound potential of WEI is evaluated in 3 thousand tons of equivalent fuel. In 1998 the Institute Belenergoset’ conducted an assessment of wind speed and concluded that Belarus does not have weather conditions that favor wind energy installations with present state of the art equipment. Plans to create a new type of wind power installation which will be able to produce power at low wind speed may make the wide-scale use of WEI in Belarus possible in the future. Bioenergy installationsBioenergy installations are currently under development and testing in the Scientific Research Center for Non-Traditional Power Engineering near Minsk. The results of this work will provide a more precise evaluation of the actual yield of tradable biogas. Even in case of low biogas yield, development of cheap and reliable bioenergy installations will be of great practical importance for the country. Application of bioenergy installations will allow improvement especially of the environmental situation around the large-scale stock-breeding farms and complexes, where at present huge amounts of unprocessed biomass are stored. Besides, it is possible to plan to obtain a significant quantity of high-quality organic fertilizers. This will enable a reduction in the production of mineral fertilizers, which require a lot of power-to produce. Potentially possible bulk yield of tradable biogas from a cattle-breeding complex (which has usually up to 100,000 cattle) is about 160 thousand tons of equivalent fuel per year. At present, bioenergy installations are not used on the regular basis, since the problem of operation at low temperature remains unsolved. However, this source is considered as the only way to solve the problem of organic waste in agriculture and is one of the priorities for future development. Solar energy The main direction of the solar energy application will be solar water heaters (SWH) and various solar installations for the intensification of drying and heating processes in agriculture. At present, solar cells are used in electronics, as an energy source for calculators, watches, etc., and household solar water heaters are becoming popular. Utilization of solar energy for other purposes on a wide-scale basis is a question of the nearest future[2]. Geothermal resources The thermal conditions of the depths of Belarus' territory have not be sufficiently investigated. According to preliminary data, the most favorable conditions for thermal water formation are in Pripyat' depression in southern Belarus. The large depth of thermal waters, their relatively low temperature, high mineralization and low flow rate of boreholes (100-1150 m3/day) does not allow thermal waters to be considered a considerable energy source at present. Municipal solid waste The content of organic matter in municipal waste is 40-75 %. Carbon makes up 35-40%, and ash content is 40-70%. Combustible components in municipal waste make up 50-88%, calorific power of solid municipal waste is 800-2000 kcal/kg. In global practice the obtaining of energy from solid municipal waste is implemented in several ways: through burning, active and passive gasification. At present, the possibility of gasification of solid municipal waste for energy production is under investigation, since currently this technology does not exist in Belarus. The issue of nuclear power plant (NPP) construction in Belarus is not a new one. It was planned to put into operation the first unit of the Minsk nuclear heat and power plant (2x1000MWt) in 1989. Also, it was decided to build Belarusian NPP with capacity of 6000 MWt. These activities were suspended after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Seventy percent of the fallout from Chernobyl landed in Belarus; 23% percent of Belarusian territory is contaminated. In recent years the Belarusian government again explored the feasibility of constructing a nuclear power plant. For that purpose a special commission was formed in 1998: the Commission on the Evaluation of the Expediency of the Development of Nuclear Energy in Belarus. In late 1999, this Commission recommended that Belarus should not build a nuclear power plant within the next ten years. Lishtvan, I.I. and A.A Terent’ev. "Local Fuel Resources in Belarus and Possible Scales of Their Usage. Handout for the session of the Commission on the Evaluation of the Expediency of the Development of Nuclear Energy in Belarus, 1998. "Long-term and Short-terms Development of the Energy Balance in Belarus." Materials to the session the Commission on the Evaluation of the Expediency of the Development of Nuclear Energy in Belarus, 1998. Mikhalevich, A.A. "State and Perspectives of Usage of Renewable Energy in Belarus." Materials for the session the Commission on the Evaluation of the Expediency of the Development of Nuclear Energy in Belarus, 1998. Proceedings of the sessions of the Commission on the Assessment of the Expedience of Nuclear Power Plant Construction in Belarus, Minsk, 1999. Smolyar I.N., and V.N. Ermashkevich. Atomic Energy: Arguments For and Against. Minsk: Pravo i Ekonomika, 2000. "State and Problems of the FEC of Belarus." The Commission on the Evaluation of the Expediency of the Development of Nuclear Energy in Belarus, 1998.
[1] MJ = Megajoule. 1 Btu (British
Thermal Unit) equals 1, 055 joules.
|