Most energy in Belarus is cheap fossil gas from Russia,[1] and Belarus is a net energy importer. According to IEA, the energy import vastly exceeded the energy production in 2015, describing Belarus as one of the world's least energy sufficient countries in the world.[2] Belarus imports oil from Russia,[3] and sends back some refined products such as gasoline.[4]
Total energy consumption (measured by total primary energy supply) in Belarus was 27.0 Mtoe in 2018, similar to consumption in Norway and Hungary.[2] Primary energy use in Belarus was 327 TWh or 34 TWh per million persons in 2008.[5]
Primary energy use per capita in Belarus in 2009 (34 MWh) was slightly more than in Portugal (26 MWh) and about half of the use in Belgium (64 MWh) or Sweden (62 MWh).[5]
Electricity consumed in 2021 was 32.67 billion kWh, 3,547 kWh per capita.[6]
The Astravets Nuclear Power Plant became operational in 2020.[9] In 2024, it produced 15.7 TWh of electricity generating up to 40% of the country's supply.[10]
Natural gas
The country is one of the world’s largest importers of natural gas with estimates for 2018 being about 17 Mtoe (20 billion cubic metres [bcm]) of natural gas, making it the leading importer among the so-called EU4Energy countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. In 2018 almost all generated electricity came from natural gas (97%, or 39 terawatt hours [TWh]).[2] In 1990, the IEA reported natural gas as constituting 52% of electricity generation, with oil generating 48%.[11]
In 2021 18.64 billion m3 were consumed with 0.06 billion produced, the rest imported.[6]
Oil
Oil refineries, oil and gas pipelines in Belarus
Belarus is a large oil refiner, listed 36th in the world, at 19 Mt of oil products in 2018 by the IEA.[2] It has two refineries and oil pipelines built during the Soviet era including the Mozyr Oil Refinery.
Oil consumed in 2021 amounted to 49.13m barrels with 12.52 m barrels produced, the rest imported.[6]
Renewable energy generation accounted for 6% of Belarus’s energy in 2018, rising to 8% in 2020, mostly from biofuels and waste. Renewables share in electricity generation was 2% in 2018 (0.8 TWh).[2]
Years in which the last three renewable power levels achieved [6]
Achievement
Year
Achievement
Year
Achievement
Year
4%
1999
6%
2001
8%
2020
Renewable energy includes wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy sources.
Storage
Because non-nuclear thermal power plants are ramped up and down depending on heat requirements, and nuclear is not very flexible, increased battery storage has been suggested.[12]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
