Armenian Solar Power Project in Limbo - The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
Armenian Solar Power Project in Limbo - The Armenian Mirror-Spectator
By Nane Sahakian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — An Abu Dhabi-based company appears to have put on hold plans to build Armenia’s first massive solar power plant.
The Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, also known as Masdar, won in 2021 an international tender for the construction of the 200-megawatt plant near Talin, a small town 67 kilometers outside of Yerevan.
Masdar pledged to invest $174 million in the plant, 85 percent of which it would own. The Armenian National Interests Fund (ANIF), a government agency tasked with attracting foreign investment, was due to control the remaining minority stake.
The facility was initially expected to be built by the end of 2023 and ANIF said it was expected to start generating electricity in 2025.
No signs of construction or preparations for it are now visible on the 500 hectares of land set aside for the solar power plant.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: solar
Declining costs and government encouragement have resulted in a rapid increase in solar energy production in the United States over the past 10 years, although solar’s share remains small: 1.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018. That rapid growth is projected to continue.