YEREVAN (Eurasianet)–The Armenian National Assembly has given the green light to plans to build a new nuclear power station to replace Armenia’s outmoded Metzamor facility, Russian news services reported.
Energy Minister Armen Movsisian asserted that the new plant will be safer than the Soviet-era Metsamor, which provides 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity. The plant, which is slotted to open in 2016, is expected to have an energy production capacity of up to 1,200 megawatts, the Regnum news agency reported on October 28.
Movsisian claimed that the new plant would enable Armenia to become an electricity exporter.
It is very important for Armenia to consider entering the international market of renewable energy. Countries in Europe are accelerating their move to hydrogen as the future fuel for their transport vehicles, ships, trains and factories. China, Japan and South Korea are also doing the same by investing huge amount of budget to build infrastructure for the production, storage and distribution of liquid green hydrogen.
With nuclear power plant that Armenia has, the production of hydrogen for export market can be developed. This can be supported with the construction of solar, wind, and hydro-power plants to increase the production capacity of green hydrogen to a large scale, to reach export price that is more competitive in the world market. Liquid Green Hydrogen is the fuel of the future and Armenia has got natural resource (water) to produce it. From a big importer of fossil fuel, Armenia can turn itself to become major exporter of green hydrogen to Europe and other region.