ALTERNATIVE ENERGY IN ARMENIA
Story and Photos Adapted from ‘The Stone Garden Guide to Armenia and
Karabagh,’ By Matthew Karanian and Robert Kurkjian, reprinted with
permission
Yerevan Times (Armenia)
November 12, 2004
Since the 1990s, Armenia has been grappling with how to resolve its energy
shortages. Nuclear power delivers about 35 percent of Armenia’s energy
needs, but a government study several years ago determined that it might
be possible to develop alternative sources of energy to replace nuclear as
early as 2004.
If sufficient alternative sources were developed, then the nuclear power
plant could be shut down, according to an official who was the spokesman
for Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian at the time.
People sometimes hear what they want to hear, however, and so the
scuttlebutt for years was that Armenia had made a promise to decommission
its Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant by this year. They did, sort of. The
catch, of course, was that sufficient alternative sources had to be
available, first. The year 2004 is almost over, but those alternative
sources have not been developed – at least not to the extent necessary to
serve as an alternative to nuclear power. Some progress is being made,
however, especially with wind and solar-generated projects.
WIND
Renewable energy is cleaner than the traditional sources such as nuclear
and thermal power. Solar and wind power do have an impact upon our
environment, but they don’t pollute the atmosphere – unless one considers
the pollution that is emitted when the solar panels or wind turbines are
manufactured.
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 on the saddles of mountain passes. Some of these local
wind currents are legendary.
At present, 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. Still, wind energy is a strong
contingency plan for Armenia. Testing is ongoing, but if wind power proves
to be feasible, then Armenia could add wind-generated electricity to its
power sources.
Start-up costs for establishing wind as an alternative energy source would
be insignificant compared to the cost of building a new nuclear power
plant. Building a wind farm with a 10 megawatt capacity could cost $10
million to build, and another $1 million in legal fees. A new nuclear
power plant might easily cost $1 billion. Plus, storing the radioactive
waste – it cannot be `disposed’ of – is an expensive and risky business.
Start-up costs are only part of the equation, however. In order to be
economically feasible, a site must have consistent annual wind speeds of
roughly 8 meters per second. After the infrastructure is built, the price
of wind power depends on the wind speed at the site. At 6 meters per
second, it cannot compete with nuclear, coal or gas. But an annual wind
speed of 8 meters per second beats coal, and starts to compete with gas
and nuclear energy. At 9 meters per second wind beats them all. At this
wind velocity, wind turbines can generate electricity for as little as
three cents per kilowatt-hour, which is quite inexpensive.
But whereas nuclear energy might continue to be a major contributor to
Armenia’s energy needs, wind might contribute no more than five percent of
the country’s electricity. Wind is therefore just one important
alternative among a portfolio of energy sources.
SOLAR
Energy from the sun is more affordable than wind power for individual
residences when the power does not get added to the country’s electric
grid. This is because the photo voltaic cells needed for solar power are
far too costly to be used for the national electrical grid but they are
more economical in areas that the electric grid doesn’t reach.
Artak Hambarian, the director of a solar energy project in Yerevan,
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.
Solar is especially economical for heating water, however. This is where
solar power beats wind power. Solar energy generation capacity in Armenia
is currently around 650 MW, but estimates for future capacity are as high
as 3,500 MW. Unfortunately, says Hambarian, `this could take decades to
achieve.’ Hambarian is the Director of the Engineering Research Center
(ERC) at the American University of Armenia (AUA).
Hambarian says it could take $10 billion to convert all of Armenia’s
energy generation capacity to solar – assuming that anyone wanted to do
that. `In the future it could all be solar,’ he says. `But it would be too
expensive.’
Limited practical applications of solar energy have proven cost-effective
for AUA, however. This University is supplied with hot water and with
heating and cooling by a project that its academic engineers from ERC are
working on.
A solar photovoltaic system, also installed on the roof, provides
electricity to a solar driven electric system that makes the University
building independent from the electric grid and which serves to back-up
the University internet servers.
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM ALTERNATIVE ENERGY?
The thermal, nuclear and hydro facilities that Armenia inherited from the
Soviet Union generate so much electricity that Armenia has been able to
sell some of it to the Republic of Georgia. How might the cost of wind or
solar energy compare with the cost of the existing nuclear energy program
in Armenia? Could electricity generated by wind or solar be sold
commercially, at a profit?
It’s difficult to compare the profitability of wind and nuclear generated
energy in Armenia, because the nuclear energy that the country generates
and sells is from a plant that was already here when the country gained
independence. Wind-generated power would include start-up expenses that
nuclear didn’t have.
What this means is that wind might not be exploitable today, but that it
might become a better bargain when, or if, Armenia scraps nuclear power.
Over time, wind and solar productions may attract more and more donor
support from the government and from others.
Wind power generates about 13,000 megawatts of electricity worldwide, with
much of the increases of the past few years attributable to new
installations in Germany and Spain. At the current rate of new
construction, wind may surpass nuclear energy in total world capacity in
just a few years.
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 traveled extensively in Armenia and have just released a
new book about the region, `The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh.’
The travel guide highlights conservation efforts in Armenia, including
efforts at adopting renewable energy technologies, among its 304 pages.
The guidebook is unique among Armenian-subject guidebooks for its
beautiful color photography, its 25 color maps, and for the insider
perspective of its authors.
`The Stone Garden Guide: Armenia and Karabagh’ is available by mail order
from booksellers such as Amazon.com for $24.95. It is available in Yerevan
from Artbridge Café on Abovian Street. More information about the book is
available from