There is some renewed movement on geothermal in Armenia with a new study planned to explore the country's geothermal resources by an Armenian-American group of scientists.
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Local news in Armenia report that a group of experts met this week to discuss prospects for the development of geothermal energy in Armenia. The event will be exploring the results of the “Assessment of geothermal energy resources and natural hazards in Armenia” research project. The project was prepared by a joint Armenian-American research group, funded by PEER Science of the US National Academy of Sciences.
There have been efforts on geothermal development and initial wells drilled in 2016, as we reported.
With the geological faults and potentially active volcanic systems, there is geothermal development potential in Armenia. With an increasing will to replace the import of fossil fuels, geothermal receives more and more attention. The now planned study on the geothermal potential in the country is aimed at stimulating research to facilitate concrete geothermal exploration.
The goal of the study is then to submit concrete proposal on the use of geothermal resources in Armenia to the country’s government.
Initial work was done by Arries, a Spanish company with corresponding plans for a 40 MW geothermal power project at Karkar in the southeast of the country.
Work on a feasiblity study for the project was conducted in the first half of 2017, with two wells drilled to a depth of 1,500 meters each, which confirmed the availability of the necessary volumes of hot water with a temperature of 122.5 degrees Celsius. The early exploration efforts were funded by the Climate Investment Fund, which invested around $9 million in the project, as part of a total $40 million package also exploring solar and small hydropower plants.
A tender was planned back in 2018, but no investors were found. A company from the Czech Republic called Sumeg GeoPower AG was interested.
The expected investment volume for the project was estimated at $50 million. For the project a road was built to the Karkar area, which was supposed to serve the construction and operation of a geothermal power plant. Besides “Karkar”, there are other promising sources in Armenia, for example, “Jermaghbyur”, “Lidzor”, sources on the border with Georgia and in Sisian.
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