ArmInfo. Until 2020 Armenia will decrease the consumption of the primary energy for 37%. This is stated by the press office of the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia referring to the information of Vahagn Atayan, the Energy Saving and Technical Standards Department Head.
According to him, tha matter is the energy saving at about 40 bln kW/hour, Folowing Atayan, the price for public buildings and SME-s is formed in the limits of 1 - 4 cents per 1 kW/hour, while the energy supplied by the energy sector of Armenia is equal to 7 american cents. That means that the energy efficiency improvement is more preferable option for Armenia than establishment of new power generation units.
Following Atayan, currently Armenia imports about 67% energy products, which makes the energy sector of the Republic very vulnerable. The energy efficiency promotion will give an option for primary power, and will lead to the decrease of imported resources volumes.
Earlier in his interview to ArmInfo Minister Hayk Harutyunyan stated that within the framework of national project on energy saving the first stage results were successful - the economy indications in the aspect of energy savings grew twice to that expected, and the initial goal was to decrease for 3,3 %. Based on this results two projects were developed - until 2018 and 2020 respectively. According to Deputy Minister, the project showed that the main guarantee for the efficient policy in this field is the availability of appropriate financial tool. As Harutyunyan clarified, that might be seen on example of a simple home appliance - for instance, if one buys a freezer having modern features, he could save up to 70-80% of energy.
Energocredit is a program of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in the Caucasus region. Together with participating local financial institutions, Energocredit finances energy efficient and renewable energy projects of businesses and individuals. To note, EBRD (European Bank of Reconstruction and Development) in 2007 Launched an Energo credit program for Caucasus region.
The Energocredit loan package offers additional benefits as a cash back payment and free technical expert advice. The European Union Neighborhood Investment Facility rewards the environmentally friendly investments with 10% or 15% cash back of the loan amount, the expert advice is provide by the Austrian Ministry of Finance. The financing for corporate loans is carried out with the help of partner banks and financing institutions in Armenia, such as HSBC Armenia, Ameriabank, ACBA Credit Agricole Bank, ACBA Leasing, Inecobank, SEF International and ArmSwissBank.
Energocredit provides also residential loans to individuals to do energy efficient housing renovation and to purchase energy saving equipment for cutting energy costs of heating, air conditioning and electricity use. This investment helps the households to reduce energy consumption to save both money and the environment.
