Masdar, a renewable energy company and a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company, will build a 200-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Armenia under an MoU it signed with the Armenian government.
The Ayg-1 project will be Armenia’s largest utility-scale solar plant.
The Government Support Agreement (GSA) was signed by Gnel Sanosyan, Armenia’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar.
Masdar said the Ayg-1 project will be developed on a design, finance, build, own, and operate (DFBOO) basis and the project company will be 85 percent owned by Masdar, with the Armenian National Interests Fund, a government-owned investment agency, holding 15 percent.
In July, the Armenian government announced that Masdar was the winning bidder for the project, having submitted a tariff of $0.0290 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in a competitive process.
The Ayg-1 plant will be located between the Talin and Dashtadem communities of Armenia, in an area where solar radiation is high and land is unusable for agricultural purposes.
The plant will span over 500 hectares and will create a large number of direct and indirect jobs.
Armenia is looking to increase the share of renewables in its energy mix and reduce its dependence on imported oil and gas. The country also has significant solar energy potential, with an average annual solar energy flow per square meter of the horizontal surface of around 1,720 kWh, compared with the average European figure of 1,000 kWh.