Discovering the Future
2024
Armenia’s Energy Independence Roadmap
A grant program for developing a transformational path towards energy independence through carbon neutrality
Stages
PARTNERS
General Information
About the Program

The Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), in collaboration with the first Armenian solar panels manufacturing company - Solarnn, implemented a new grant program on developing Armenia’s Energy Independence Roadmap. The program aimed to develop a comprehensive roadmap for a transformational path from Armenia’s current energy infrastructure towards energy independence through carbon neutrality in the energy and transportation fields. The roadmap will be used for making policy recommendations to the government and investment attraction activities. Aiming to propose precise scenarios with the cost estimation and investment opportunities, the roadmap deeply analyzes the opportunities and obstacles related to significantly reducing the energy dependence and scaling the share of various renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, hydro, and biomass. The roadmap was presented to the stakeholders and interested groups for in-depth discussion and coordination of the next steps.

6
Months
$30K
Grant amount

Roadmap Importance

Many countries, such as Armenia, face the necessity to import fuels to cover the gaps of their own energy industry. Having no proven gas or oil resources makes these countries highly dependent on external energy sources. This raises the need to generate solutions for reducing reliance on energy imports. The dependence on external energy sources is partly mitigated in Armenia through the generation of nuclear power, but this source of energy cannot be considered as completely independent of external factors, as nuclear fuel has to be imported. Besides, although nuclear power plants do not generate greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, this energy source possesses different risks, including the ones related to safety, especially given the region's seismicity.

Therefore, in the context of addressing all of the factors mentioned above, it becomes essential for the country to efficiently realize its abundant potential for significantly scaling and diversifying its renewable energy industry. Armenia has a great potential for scaling renewables, and there is a sound basis for the corresponding industry investment. The process of integrating renewable energy sources in conventional power systems has slowly been developing in Armenia. Building on that, the roadmap developed under this grant program aims to draw the path to accelerate and advance this process.

Roadmap Description

The expert group will conduct a comprehensive analysis on the current state of demand and supply and perspectives for scaling the generation and utilization of all the main types of renewable energy. This will pave a clear path from the current state of Armenia to energy independence, including the necessary changes for making Armenia an energy-efficient country.

The roadmap will integrate multiple recent reports and papers to extend the analysis further on what has already been done by local and international organizations and experts. It will have a cost-benefit analysis and an impact assessment. The roadmap will also include studies on the international experience of transforming from fuel-dominated energy consumption towards the significant expansion of energy production from renewables. Moreover, it will particularly investigate the feasibility of applying the existing technology solutions to Armenia's case and identify the possible necessity of their further improvement for strengthening the efficiency of their usage in the country. Finally, the roadmap will contain a technical description of the target model of the country's energy system, the roles of its participants, and the rules of interaction between them.



Program Status

The selection process was conducted by an independent international committee and resulted in the formation of a blended expert group of 4 local and 2 international professionals specializing in diverse aspects of the energy field.

The group starts the research from February 1, 2022, and will present the results by the end of the year.

The grant amount includes:

  • monthly remuneration of the local experts,
  • honorarium for the international expert,
  • travel for the international expert,
  • travels within Armenia for the local team.
Experts