

Shtigen has big plans in Armenia

Photo: Shtigen
“Some of our main customers are households, hotels, factories, sports centres, swimming pools and hospitals,” said Shekyan. Although there is no official statistic on the size of Armenia’s solar thermal market, the company expects demand to grow for another five years at least. Whereas households prefer to buy easy-to-install thermosiphon systems, most local manufacturers have been putting up pumped systems equipped with storage tanks to provide heat at nighttime too.
In 2015, Shtigen installed several large solar thermal systems to supply heat to hotels. They were supported under the Green Leasing scheme, which had been implemented by Armenian-based ACBA Leasing but, according to Shekyan, had come to an end in the meantime. Still, because the price of gas has remained high, at 0.29 USD/m3 including taxes, demand for these types of systems continues to grow. “This is why large companies see an advantage in switching to solar,” he said.
Population |
3 million |
Net energy imports (% of energy use) in 2013 |
72 % |
Energy subsidies (% of GDP) in 2015 |
4.3 % |
Renewable energy share of total primary energy supply |
7 % (mainly hydro power) |
Key figures on Armenia
Source: UNECE Renewable Energy Status Report 2017 by REN21
This article was written by Eugene Gerden, a Moscow-based freelance journalist specialising in renewable energies.
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