China Development Bank provides $11.8 million loan for Grabniki Wind Farm Expansion Project (Linked to Record ID#66641 and ID#66783)

Project narrative

On May 10, 2015, China Development Bank opened a $300 million credit line with Belarusbank to finance an unspecified set of infrastructure projects in Belarus (captured in Record ID#66783). Then, on November 24, 2015, it was announced that China Development Bank had approved a subsidiary loan under this credit line to RUE Grodnoenergo (Гродноэнерго) for the Grabniki Wind Farm Expansion Project. The face value of this loan was $11.8 million and it carried the following terms: 7% interest rate, 8.5 year maturity, and 2 year grace period. The purpose of this project was to install 5 wind turbines (each with 1.5 MW of power generation capacity) at an existing wind farm — operated by RUE Grodnoenergo — near the village of Grabniki (Грабники) in Novogrudok (Novogrudok) district and Vitebsk region. Before the expansion, the wind farm produced 1.5 MW of energy. FUpon completion of the project (which was undertaken as part of the Belenergo investment program), the wind farm was expected to generate was expected to generate 9 MW and approximately 18.4 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year. Belelektromontazhnaladka OJSC was the general contractor responsible for implementation. It hired China Huayi Electric Co., Ltd as a subcontractor. China Huayi Electric Co., Ltd. agreed to produce the wind turbines in China, before shipping it to Belarus via Lithuania. The delivery of the turbines to the project site was completed in November 2015. The expanded wind farm was scheduled to be commissioned in May 2016. This project appears to now be complete, but its precise implementation end date is unknown. The Chinese government also financed the initial creation of the wind farm in 2011 (captured in Record ID#66641).