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The National, UAE
May 1 2010
Armenia investigates geothermal potential
by Tamsin Carlisle
Last Updated: May 01. 2010 7:37PM UAE / May 1. 2010 3:37PM GMT
YEREVAN // Armenia has hitched its energy future to nuclear power, but
some of that may come from the Earth's core instead of man-made atomic
reactors.
Last year, the landlocked Eurasian state, which produces no oil or
gas, won a US$1.5 million (Dh5.5m) grant from the World Bank for
technical assistance with geothermal energy development.
It was the second grant Armenia had received under a the bank's $25m,
eight-year GeoFund programme to promote geothermal power in eastern
Europe and Central Asia.
`We have a study for geothermal energy,' Armen Movsisyan, the Armenian
energy minister, said last week. `We have the potential and we can
utilise it. We have put together a business plan.'
Geothermal power projects tap the underground heat generated by
natural nuclear fission as the Earth's stores of the radioactive
metals uranium and thorium decay.
This is most accessible at geological `hot spots' where the Earth's
crust is stretched thin or under stress. Volcanoes, earthquake
activity and natural hot springs are all indicative of hot spots, and
Armenia has all of them.
`Armenia is situated in a vast area of intense young volcanism,' notes
an EU web portal on the country's renewable energy. `This may signify
availability of a considerable resource of underground heat.'
The European Commission funds the renewableenergyarmenia.am website
under a project aimed at supporting Armenian government policies that
promote renewable energy development in a country that has pledged to
decommission the ageing atomic plant that supplies 40 per cent of its
electricity.
In 2001, Yerevan ordered the purchase by local utilities of all
electricity generated from renewable sources in Armenia for the
following 15 years. The programme was designed to stimulate renewable
power development ahead of the scheduled 2016 closure of the nuclear
plant.
Two years later, the government ordered extensive field investigations
at Jermaghbyur, a possible geothermal project site. Geophysicists and
seismic engineers from the Armenian National Academy of Science
collaborated with Russian experts to drill an exploratory well seeking
underground hot-water reservoirs, which they found. They also
conducted other tests, such as analysing local water sources for
radioactive isotopes.
With the help of a survey of the 19 mining companies operating in the
region, the researchers in 2005 estimated the cost of installing 25
megawatts of geothermal electrical capacity on the Jermaghbyur plateau
at $39.1m.
While Armenia cannot do without a nuclear plant and plans to install a
new one by 2017, it is also committed to broadening its energy mix
with more renewables.
That is partly to preserve its environment, which is attracting
increasing numbers of tourists, and partly to circumvent problems
caused by unreliable gas supplies from Russia through Georgia.
Small hydroelectricity projects on fast-flowing rivers already provide
about 30 per cent of Armenia's installed power capacity but that
resource is almost fully exploited.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dl l/article?AID=/20100501/BUSINESS/705019942/1005
May 1 2010
Armenia investigates geothermal potential
by Tamsin Carlisle
Last Updated: May 01. 2010 7:37PM UAE / May 1. 2010 3:37PM GMT
YEREVAN // Armenia has hitched its energy future to nuclear power, but
some of that may come from the Earth's core instead of man-made atomic
reactors.
Last year, the landlocked Eurasian state, which produces no oil or
gas, won a US$1.5 million (Dh5.5m) grant from the World Bank for
technical assistance with geothermal energy development.
It was the second grant Armenia had received under a the bank's $25m,
eight-year GeoFund programme to promote geothermal power in eastern
Europe and Central Asia.
`We have a study for geothermal energy,' Armen Movsisyan, the Armenian
energy minister, said last week. `We have the potential and we can
utilise it. We have put together a business plan.'
Geothermal power projects tap the underground heat generated by
natural nuclear fission as the Earth's stores of the radioactive
metals uranium and thorium decay.
This is most accessible at geological `hot spots' where the Earth's
crust is stretched thin or under stress. Volcanoes, earthquake
activity and natural hot springs are all indicative of hot spots, and
Armenia has all of them.
`Armenia is situated in a vast area of intense young volcanism,' notes
an EU web portal on the country's renewable energy. `This may signify
availability of a considerable resource of underground heat.'
The European Commission funds the renewableenergyarmenia.am website
under a project aimed at supporting Armenian government policies that
promote renewable energy development in a country that has pledged to
decommission the ageing atomic plant that supplies 40 per cent of its
electricity.
In 2001, Yerevan ordered the purchase by local utilities of all
electricity generated from renewable sources in Armenia for the
following 15 years. The programme was designed to stimulate renewable
power development ahead of the scheduled 2016 closure of the nuclear
plant.
Two years later, the government ordered extensive field investigations
at Jermaghbyur, a possible geothermal project site. Geophysicists and
seismic engineers from the Armenian National Academy of Science
collaborated with Russian experts to drill an exploratory well seeking
underground hot-water reservoirs, which they found. They also
conducted other tests, such as analysing local water sources for
radioactive isotopes.
With the help of a survey of the 19 mining companies operating in the
region, the researchers in 2005 estimated the cost of installing 25
megawatts of geothermal electrical capacity on the Jermaghbyur plateau
at $39.1m.
While Armenia cannot do without a nuclear plant and plans to install a
new one by 2017, it is also committed to broadening its energy mix
with more renewables.
That is partly to preserve its environment, which is attracting
increasing numbers of tourists, and partly to circumvent problems
caused by unreliable gas supplies from Russia through Georgia.
Small hydroelectricity projects on fast-flowing rivers already provide
about 30 per cent of Armenia's installed power capacity but that
resource is almost fully exploited.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dl l/article?AID=/20100501/BUSINESS/705019942/1005