Business news

9 Sep 2020

Irish investor to build photovoltaic power stations in FEZ Vitebsk

An archive photo

VITEBSK, 9 September (BelTA) – The Free Economic Zone Vitebsk (FEZ Vitebsk) has welcomed a new resident company - OOO Solargamma. The company was set up with the help of an investor from Ireland, BelTA learned from the FEZ Vitebsk administration.

The company has plans to implement a project to build photovoltaic power stations on the premises of the free economic zone, and later in Orsha, Polotsk and Novopolotsk. The energy generated by these power stations will be used to meet energy needs of the existing FEZ Vitebsk resident companies. This will enable these companies to cut their production costs dramatically by diversifying electricity sources and to use environmentally friendly solar energy, the FEZ administration noted.

The Irish investor showed interest in the FEZ Vitebsk at the beginning of the year. Subsequently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the negotiations continued online, and organizational issues were also addressed remotely.

The first stage of the project provides for commissioning two stations on the main site of the FEZ where the former military airfield in Vitebsk is located. In line with the project, the aggregate design capacity of the photovoltaic power stations will be 1MW by 2022 and 7 MW by 2024.

OOO Solargamma became the sixth FEZ resident company registered in 2020. All in all, 54 investment projects are in progress in the FEZ Vitebsk. They are run by investors from 16 countries, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Great Britain, the USA, Israel, Cyprus, and Estonia.

The FEZ Vitebsk was established in 1999 and comprises 16 sectors with the total area of nearly 2,800ha. Seven sectors are located in Vitebsk, five in Orsha District, one in Vitebsk District, one in Polotsk District, one in Postavy District, and another one in Novopolotsk. The companies operating in the free economic zone employ about 16,700 people.