Biomass District Heating Project

The development objective of the Biomass District Heating Project for Belarus is to scale up the efficient use of renewable biomass in heat and electricity generation in selected towns in Belarus. The project has three components. The first component, district heating energy efficiency will include the following energy efficiency investments in the selected district heating systems: (a) modernization and or construction of heat substations by installing individual building level heat substations with temperature controls; and (b) reconstruction and or construction of district heating networks and upgrading of peak load gas boilers. The second component, biomass heat generation will include investment in base-load biomass boilers, biomass-based small combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and in some towns also wood chipping equipment. The third component, technical assistance will finance capacity building for the participating district heating utilities and implementation support to the project management unit (PMU), including the following: (a) improvement of existing social accountability mechanisms; (b) support for a shift to energy-content-based biomass pricing; and (c) other project implementation support