AZG Armenian Daily #059, 01/04/2006

Economy

WORLD BANK ALLOCATES $ 8 MILLION FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECT IN
ARMENIA

The World Bank approved the renewable energy project for Armenia,
yesterday. $ 8 million will be allocated for implementation of
the project. The allocation includes $5 million donated by the WB
International Development Company and $ 3 million given by the Global
ecology Fund. Roger Robinson, head of the WB Yerevan office, stated
about this at the March 30 press conferences. It is expected that other
donors, including the European Bank for Restoration and Development
and Kafeschian Family Fund will allocate additional $10 million.

The Renewable Energy Project is aimed to utilize less dangerous
energy sources, securing higher level of energy safety. The
project consists of two integral parts, i.e. overcoming obstacles
and financing investments. The financial sources will be allocated
to the Renewable Energy Fund. On its turn, he fund will finance the
private investors. The experts expect that the implementation of
the project will secure 80 mega watts of capacity every year. This
will help grow annual production of electricity by 200 watts per
hour. Robinson stated that the committee of public services approved
quite an acceptable tariff that will help secure much bigger volume
of renewable energy in 20-30.

Particularly, the minor HPPs will have to pay 4,5 cents for electricity
proceeded from wind and bio resources.

By Ara Martirosian