IMPRESSIONS MAGAZINE
September/October /November 2004
THE FUTURE OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IN ARMENIA
Story by Impressions Staff
With its Soviet-built nuclear power plant nearing the end of its life and
international pressure to `go green’, Armenia has the opportunity to position
itself at the forefront of environmentally friendly energy production. Matthew
Karanian and Robert Kurkjian explore the wind, water and solar options
available and assess their viability.
During the 1990s, Armenia grappled with how to resolve its energy shortages.
Since then, its nuclear power plant has been restarted, financial and technical
assistance has come from the international community, natural gas imports have
increased and the energy crisis has been mitigated.
The country now relies upon a variety of sources, with nuclear energy accounting
for about 35% of its energy needs, but over the past few years there has been
increased pressure from the European Community to shut the nuclear plant down.
The Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant is operated by a Russian company and has two
reactors with projected useful lives that will expire in a decade. Only one of
the reactors is operating, and there are many reasons for shutting it down and
keeping the other closed.
The most persuasive of these arguments is that the reactors sit in a seismically
active zone near a densely populated area, and they don’t have a containment
dome that would prevent the release of radiation during an uncontrolled event.
The government has been studying energy issues since Armenia’s independence.
Back in 1996, it projected that alternative sources of energy might be
developed within the next six to eight years.
At that time it was thought that those alternative sources might be enough to
make it possible to shut down the nuclear power plant as early as 2004. Those
alternative sources have not been developed – at least not to the extent
necessary for them to be considered a genuine alternative to nuclear power.
Thermal power plants in Armenia, using a combination of oil and natural gas,
fuel approximately 45% of the country’s needs and hydropower provides the
balance. Strictly speaking, these are alternatives to nuclear power, but the
cleanest, most cutting edge alternative energy sources available today are
solar and wind.
These sources, also referred to as `renewable energy’, are cleaner than
traditional sources, such as coal or oil combustion. Solar and wind power do
have an impact upon our environment, but they don’t pollute the atmosphere
during operation. Instead, the environmental impact is from the perceived
blight upon the landscape created by a field of wind turbines or solar panels.
Wind turbines have also been known to be harmful to birds and can be noisy, but
such environmental problems are relatively insignificant compared to the
problems that are created by nuclear and thermal energy generation.
WIND ENERGY
Armenia doesn’t have a wind stream that is comparable to the Gulf Stream that
exists in the US, but there is nevertheless some wind potential. Armenia is a
mountainous country and strong winds frequently develop on mountain ridges or
in the saddles of mountain passes. Indeed, some of these local wind currents
are legendary.
According to fable, the stones of Armenia’s hot Ararat Plain were cooled by a
unique airflow pattern. 1700 years ago, that swept down from the northern
mountains and from the Lake Sevan region. The wind supposedly made life a bit
more comfortable for an embattled man named Gregory, who was confined to a
prison there. This man would later become a Saint, and the wind pattern has
since been known as the Saint Gregory Wind.
At present, it is estimated that the economically viable capacity for wind
energy is approximately equal to that of nuclear, about 500 MW, but wind energy
development in Armenia is in its infancy.
As part of a project funded by Gerard Cafesjian, an Armenian- American
philanthropist, engineers are studying the economic viability of wind-generated
electricity in Armenia. Testing is ongoing, but if wind power proves to be
feasible, then Armenia could add wind-generated electricity to its portfolio of
energy sources.
Windmills – actually large wind turbines – are sleek and aerodynamic. They are
made of aluminum, steel or plastic and often operate in large fields. A
wind-generated electricity project in Palm Springs, California, for example,
uses a field of 7,500 windmills. It’s too costly to use one windmill to
generate electricity for commercial purposes, but a single windmill can power a
mechanical pump, which is how they are sometimes used in the US and places with
extensive rural areas – Argentina, for example, has an estimated 320,000 solo
windmills in operation.
Armenia has large tracts of rural areas, but one of the legacies of Soviet
industrialisation is that nearly every place in Armenia has access to the
electricity grid, so a remote location that might otherwise need to generate
its own energy simply doesn’t need to. The future for wind power in Armenia,
therefore, is in large wind farms that generate electricity that is then added
to the grid. The Armenian government hopes one day to be able to generate as
much as 10% of its electricity in this way.
HYDRO POWER
Hydro power generates approximately 20% of Armenia’s energy needs. Although this
form of power generation does not emit atmospheric pollution, there can be
significant environmental impacts. The greatest impacts are on water quality
and quantity, and changes to the surrounding environment. This is usually due
to the construction of dams, which causes flooding above the dam, and decreases
the water flow downstream.
Lake Sevan’s waters have been used for decades to generate electricity, but at a
cost to the lake’s ecosystem. The increased out-flow of the lake’s water for use
in hydroelectric generation has contributed to the lake’s deterioration by
reducing its volume by roughly 40%, increasing the water temperature and
impacting the fishing industry.
SOLAR ENERGY
Energy from the sun is typically more affordable than wind power for individual
residences. Solar is particularly economical for heating water, and actually
beats many energy alternatives, though widespread implementation could take
decades to achieve. Solar energy generation capacity in Armenia is currently
around 650 MW, but estimates for future capacity are as high as 3,500 MW.
Dr Artak Hambarian, Director of the Engineering Research Center (ERC) at the
American University of Armenia (AUA), has been researching solar energy and its
applications for years. He estimates that it could take a business 20 or 30
years to earn enough savings in energy costs to pay for its investment in solar
panels that are used to create electricity.
For nearly a decade, the ERC has been engaged in a variety of solar energy
related projects. Its project of perhaps greatest national significance is its
Solar Monitoring Station (SMS), which collects solar radiation data to assist
with evaluating and developing solar energy devices.
Based on data from the SMS, engineers have calculated that one square metre of
land in Yerevan receives about 1,700 kWh of sun power annually. It is said that
Yerevan is sunny for 300 days each year, and at this rate there is a great
incentive for people to install solar panels on the roofs of their homes in
order to heat water. Additional solar data collectors are proposed for
installation at several locations around the country to further research the
applications of solar energy.
Limited practical applications of solar energy have proven cost- effective for
the AUA in recent years. The university is supplied with hot water and with
heating and cooling by a project that engineers from ERC are working on. The
project is known as DESODEC – the `Design and Installation of a Solar Driven
Desiccant Cooling Demonstration System.’
They have a solar water heater on the roof of the University’s six-floor
building, and the solar heater, together with the Desiccant Evaporative Cooling
system, provide the University with heat in the winter, and cooling in the
summer.
A solar photovoltaic system, also installed on the roof, provides electricity to
the system that makes the university building independent from the electricity
grid, and which serves to back-up the university internet servers. The DESODEC
is the first solar driven combined system in the former Soviet Union, and one
of a handful in the world.
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM ALTERNATIVE ENERGY?
The thermal, nuclear and hydro facilities that Armenia inherited from the Soviet
Union now generate so much electricity that Armenia has been able to sell some
of it to the Republic of Georgia. But if Armenia were to halt its nuclear
program, could wind and solar generated power be sold commercially, at a
profit? How would the cost of producing wind or solar energy compare with the
cost of the existing nuclear energy production in Armenia? According to energy
consultant Serge Adamian, it is not meaningful to compare the nuclear example
with solar or wind sources because Armenia isn’t paying for the nuclear power
plant. It was already there when the country gained independence, so comparing
wind and nuclear energy is therefore the `wrong paradigm,’ he says. Armenia’s
nuclear power plant is nearing the end of its productive life, and there are
other serious issues to consider, such as waste disposal and safety. Analysts
expect that the plant will be shut down within a decade, and there is not a
high probability of a new one being built.
All of this means that alternative sources may not be fully exploitable today,
but they will represent a far more practical solution if and when Armenia
scraps nuclear power. Over time, Adamian says, wind and solar production will
attract more support from the government and from others. Iran’s support in
2004 for a wind farm on Lake Sevan’s south-eastern shore is one such example.
The continued development and installation of alternative energy resources will
also lessen Armenia’s reliance on imported fossil fuel. Air quality in Armenia
will improve and there will be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – two
peripheral but significant advantages.
With an appropriate and comprehensive strategy, Armenia has an opportunity to
enter the international renewable energy market. In contrast to other
established industrial markets, the renewable energy industry has not yet
matured worldwide, which could provide an opportunity for Armenia’s scientists,
its manufacturing industry, and associated businesses. The people of Armenia
ultimately stand to benefit.
THE STONE GARDEN GUIDE TO ARMENIA, WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY TWO INSIDERS
The photographers and authors of this story -Robert Kurkjian and Matthew
Karanian – have travelled extensively in Armenia and have just released a new
book on the region, The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh (ISBN
09672120-8-1).
The guidebook highlights conservation efforts in Armenia, including attempts to
adopt renewable energy technologies, and Robert Glenn Ketchum – a renowned
conservationist and environmental photographer – contributes a Foreword.
Splendid photography, detailed colour maps, and the insider perspective of its
authors all combine to make it a unique offering.
Kurkjian and Karanian have been publishing books and photography on Armenia
since 1999, when they released the coffee table photo book Out of Stone. They
published Edge of Time: Traveling in Armenia and Karabagh in 2001, and then
released a second edition a year later. The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and
Karabagh is available by mail order from More information on the
book is available at