Sustainable Energy Successees

   

Solar Water Heaters produced by a New Joint Venture Manufacturals
During the implementation of a two-year program (2000-2001), ARMNEDSUN, sponsored by the Government of the Netherlands, 15 demonstration solar water heaters (SWH) were installed without charge on the territory of Armenia. In addition, a joint venture, SunEnergy LLC, was established between ZEN (The Netherlands) and Technocom LLC (Armenia) to manufacture solar collectors in Armenia, with a budget of 600.000 USD.
Another 15 SWH were installed at half price. A standard SWH produces hot water for bathing and washes; it includes a solar collector with area of 2.75 m2 and a water tank of 140 l. The current price of this system is 1150 USD.
The solar collectors of this company are currently installed on the rooftops of 7 homes in the Vahagni residential community, of the hotel Terdjyan (22m2), in Tsapatakh (30m2) near Lake Sevan, in the “Blue Sevan” holiday resort (see photo 2), etc, for a total areas of 300m2. The standard system allows saving up to 65% of the energy demand for hot water for a 5-member family. The pay-back period is about 5 years. 1 m2 of solar collector saves around 0.49 t c.f./year and reduces emissions of GHGs by 0.8 t CO2/year.

Solar Cooling Demo
In 1999-2002, a solar-driven desiccant cooling demonstration system was installed in the building of the American University of Armenia. The solar water heaters are used to heat up auditorium space and produce the hot water supply during the cold period. They also restore working substance, :which absorbs humidity and make the incoming air dry) during the warm period. In total, 32 flat solar water heaters are used. The surface of each collector is 2m2. The total surface of the solar system is 64 m2. The equal electrical power of the system is 40 kW. The system allows reducing consumption of electric energy by as much as 80%. The system can save 31.2 t c.f./year and can reduce GHG emission by 51.2 t CO2 /year.
The project was part of the INCO Copernicus program, with funding from the Commission of European Communities, DG XVII (budget 400 000 EUR). The participants of the project were INETI (Portugal), Fhg-ISE (Germany), Intersolarcenter (Russia), AUA, and Contact-A Ltd (Armenia). 75 % of the total sum is paid by EC, 25% by participants from Germany and Portugal.