Belarus

Belarus occupies a quiet but instructive corner of the post-Soviet hydropower map. The country completed its first large hydropower plant — the Grodno HPP on the Neman River — in 2012, followed by a second station in 2020, giving it a modest but symbolically important domestic hydropower base. In a country whose energy policy has been defined for decades by dependence on Russian natural gas, even a small hydropower programme carries political weight.

This section covers hydropower developments in Belarus in the context of the country’s broader energy situation: the relationship between hydropower and the newly operational Belarusian nuclear power plant at Ostrovets, the limited but real potential for small hydropower on the country’s river network, and the regulatory and environmental framework governing water use and dam operations.

Belarus receives less international attention than its neighbors, but its energy choices — made under significant geopolitical constraints — are relevant to anyone tracking post-Soviet energy dependence and the slow, uneven progress of diversification across the region.