Belarus has announced plans to build a third unit at the Belarusian NPP, while still considering a new nuclear project in the Mogilev region. This comes despite current electricity production fully meeting demand—largely due to artificially stimulated consumption to avoid a surplus.
According to 2022 data, the two existing units at the Belarusian NPP already generated about 5% excess capacity. The authorities increased network load, including through a switch to electric heating, but this did not create a real need for additional nuclear capacity. In 2024, electricity consumption reached 43.2 billion kWh, with the NPP supplying 40% of demand. Building a new unit will again create a surplus, which Belarus has virtually no way to export.
Promises to replace 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually also failed: in 2023, Belarus imported 17 billion cubic meters of Russian gas—only 2 billion less than in 2021. Minsk officially stated it would maintain the same purchase volumes, indicating no real reduction in dependency.
The Belarusian NPP was mostly financed through Russian loans: of $6.838 billion in funding, $5.36 billion was a loan from Moscow. Effectively, Belarus pays both for electricity and for the loan used to produce it. The new unit will also be financed through Russian debt, further increasing the burden on the budget and taxpayers.
