The only nuclear power plant in the South Caucasus is temporarily shutting down for a major upgrade, while the government plans to fill the energy gap with renewables and prepares to switch to modular technologies.
From April 1, Metsamor Armenian nuclear power plant was taken out of operation for five months. As the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure explained at the government meeting held on April 2 Davit Khudatyan, the technological break is necessary for the implementation of the second phase of the project to extend the operation period of the station until 2036.
At the same time, the head of the department expressed his belief that the temporarily out of order capacities will be successfully compensated. it is expected that the volumes of energy produced by solar power plants during that period will be fully comparable to the indicators of a stopped nuclear facility.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during the session, he again emphasized the significant potential of renewable energy. According to him, huge solar resources are able to make Armenia an absolutely self-sufficient country in terms of energy and free the state forever from the need to import electricity.
In order to achieve such an ambitious goal, the head of the government called for conceptually rethinking the approach to the sector and focusing the main efforts on the development of modern energy storage and storage technologies.
In parallel, active discussions about the prospects of building a new nuclear power plant continue in the country. Earlier, in February, the sector minister confirmed that Yerevan is making a strategic choice in favor of the modular NPP, a flexible and compact technology of the new generation.
The existing Metsamor plant, which traditionally supplies about one third of the electricity produced in Armenia, has been in operation since 1976. Having survived the conservation after the devastating earthquake of 1988 and the restart of one of the power units in the second half of the nineties, today this object of strategic importance is undergoing another phase of vital renewal.
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