Program of construction of solar power station "Masrik-1" will be completed by the end of 2019

ArmInfo. The solar photovoltage  station "Masrik-1" in the community of Masrik of the Gegharkunik  region of Armenia will provide 2% of the total energy produced in the  republic.  Answering the question of ArmInfo, Deputy Minister of  Energy Resources and Natural Infrastructures Hayk Harutyunyan said at  a press conference on April 4. The construction program will start in  2019 and will be completed by the end of the year.

The Deputy Minister reminded that about 7 dozens of companies  submitted a preliminary application for participation in the  international tender for the investor's choice of the project, 20  companies submitted an application for participation in the  prequalification stage, 10 - overcame it. Already 5 of them submitted  the final application for the project. According to the results of  the international tender, the international consortium, consisting of  the world-renowned companies - the Netherlands Fotowatio Renewable  Ventures (FRV) and the Spanish FSL Solar SL, which won the  international tender, was awarded the right to build a 55-MW Masrik-1  industrial power plant in Armenia low tariff from the future solar  generation facility - $ 0.0419 of electricity without VAT or 20.11  AMD per 1 kW / h of electricity. "For comparison, I note that the  tariff for small hydropower projects in Armenia is 23.8 AMD per 1 kWh  of electricity, that is 20% more expensive," Harutyunyan said.

According to the Deputy Minister, the project is unique in that the  heliostation will be built exclusively on private sector funds, in  contrast to world practice, where the state necessarily has its  participation. In exchange, the state undertakes that within 20 years  "Electric Networks of Armenia" will purchase electricity at the  proposed tariff. At the same time, Masrik investor will provide 80  million drams to implement investment projects for his needs, and an  additional 6 million drams will be annually transferred to the  communal budget in the form of land and property taxes. In the  process of construction, an additional 50 workplaces will be created,  and in the course of operation - 20 permanent jobs. The program for  the construction of a solar power station, according to the  representative of the Ministry of Energy, broke all the stereotypes  that this type of renewable energy sources (RES) are expensive, and  it will take a lot of time to implement these technologies in  Armenia. Meanwhile, it is already obvious that the tariff offered  from this power generation facility is lower than the average tariff  and can positively influence the final consumer tariff if its share  in the total mass of electricity production is increased.

In addition, when considering applications of Fotowatio Renewable  Ventures (FRV) and FSL Solar S.L, it became clear that Armenia offers  a number of innovative solutions in the field that will significantly  increase the plant's productivity. The proposed technical solution is  a solar module on a single-axis tracking system (polar tracking - a  horizontal tracking tool), which allows you to increase by about 20%  Performance with the same installed capacity. The project will  install more than 170 thousand solar panels and 3 thousand tracking  tools Monoline 3H. Thus, if the Armenian side initially counted on  the fact that the annual volume produced the energy of the solar  station "Masrik-1" will be about 90 million Kv / h, has now adjusted  its expectations to 120 million kW / h.