Armenia to build up aggregate capacity of solar power plants to 75MW - minister

YEREVAN, February 15. /ARKA/. Armenia will build up the aggregate capacity of its solar power plants to 75MW, Ashot Manukyan, minister of energy infrastructures and natural resources, said Thursday at a regular meeting of the Cabinet ministers. 

“Now 11 licenses are provided for building an up-to-1-megawatt plant, and another, 55-megawatt plant is planned to be built in Masrik,” he said. 

In April 2017, Armenia announced a tender for construction of a 55-megawatt solar power plant in Masrik. 

The government has also allocated 97 hectares of land to the Armenia Renewable Resources and Energy Efficiency Fund for construction of the plant. 

“In the future this area will be handed over for particular purposes to the tender winner organization,” Manukyan said. 

He said that a scheme has been designed jointly with the finance ministry, which implies the land handover to the owner of the solar plant for free, but the winner company will pay the land’s cadastre cost 
“for solving social problems and developing the community”. 

If the land will be used not for the set purpose, he said, the government will have the right to return the land without any compensation. 

“This mechanism is very effective, since it spurs development of communities and solution of social problems,” Manukyan said. “The mechanism also makes it possible to regulate the targeted use of the area.”

In 2015, a $58-million investment program aimed at development of renewable energy was launched in Armenia. 

The program is designed for 5-6 years and is being implemented by the Climate Investment Funds and supported by the Armenia Renewable Resources and Energy Efficiency Fund, the Armenian ministry of energy infrastructures and natural resources, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. 

The program implies construction of solar plants of the total capacity of 40-50 megawatt, which will be ready to operate by 2020. -0---