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2017 was successful in Armenia's renewable energy sector, Deputy Minister of energy infrastructure and natural resources Hayk Harutyunyan told a press conference on Tuesday. In his words, 252 solar plants with 2.5 MW capacity are connected to Electric Networks of Armenia, another 30 are planned to be connected.

In the minister's words, last year three solar plants were launched that sell the generated power to the Electric Network of Armenia. Another 8 similar plants are planned to be launched this year.

Harutyunyan informed that in two months he results of the tender announced for choosing a builder of a photo voltage solar power plant Masrik 1 will be announced. The main requirement for the second stage of the competition is the electricity produce tariff. The winner will be the organization or consortium that will offer the lowest price. "Around 60 companies took part in the competition with 10 of them meeting the pre-qualification requirements in the initial stage. All of them are international companies and consortiums from Korea, India, EU, U.S," the deputy minister noted.

Harutyunyan next informed that the number of users of solar heating systems is gradually increasing in Armenia. In Lernamerdz community, in particular, solar roof-top solar installations with photovoltaic panels have been constructed on all houses.

"According to our estimates, around 2,000 physical and legal entities use solar heating systems and 252 make use of photovoltaic stations. The dynamics indicate that the number of the users of solar heating system has doubled since 2014," Harutyunyan said.