Republic

Irish company to build solar park in Gomel Oblast

MINSK, 16 November (BelTA) – An Irish company intends to build a solar park in Gomel Oblast. The plans were unveiled by Mr Boleslav Pirshtuk, Deputy Chairman of the Gomel Oblast Executive Committee, at a roundtable session held as part of the Belarus Investment Forum on 16 November. The roundtable session was focused on discussing “New opportunities for the development of regions – investments in conventional industries”, BelTA has learned. The solar park will be able to generate about 30MW of electricity using territories affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe. “Thus, we will be able to use the lands, which are unfit for farming. The project costs about ?40 million. The details were discussed at the investment forum today. I think we should implement the project within three years. Gomel Oblast is the most southern one. The fact allows developing solar power engineering vigorously,” remarked Boleslav Pirshtuk. Apart from that, there are plans to start manufacturing solar batteries in the free economic zone in the oblast. A relevant agreement with the investor has been reached. The official said that Gomel Oblast is interested in cooperation with foreign companies in the area of alternative power engineering and several projects are already being implemented, in particular, biogas plant ones. Besides, it is possible to cooperate in the extraction of natural resources (brown coals, shale rock, sands, chalk, and other ones). Agriculture looks promising, in particular, the processing of soybeans and sunflowers. “The experience of the last few years indicates that we can successfully grow these crops. Technologies are needed for processing and substituting import products,” remarked Boleslav Pirshtuk.

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