Yerevan hosted today the conference on unlocking the energy efficiency potential for Armenia’s residential and public buildings.  

The event was organized by European Union Delegation to Armenia in cooperation with the EU4Energy Program.

The conference was aimed at generating dialogue on this topic with the ministries, donors, international financial institutions, representatives of the private and public sectors, as well as technical experts from NGOs and academia.

EU4Energy Program Manager Bilyana Chobanova noted that Armenia has already made progress in the development of the legislation on energy efficiency.

“Nevertheless, you need to work to put this legislation into practice. The construction companies, architects, designers should make sure that all the requirements for energy performance are already incorporated in the design and construction of the buildings. This will help avoiding the discussion on how you renovate ready buildings and make them energy efficient,” Bilyana Chobanova outlined.

Expert of EU4Energy Program Astghine Pasoyan told Banks.am that the sector is considered to be one of the major directions for the development of the potential in energy efficiency.

“According to various assessments, it is possible to provide 30-50% energy conservation in one building. This includes both technical potential and beneficial economic investments, which will be returned within a reasonable timeframe. This technical and economic potential is not used, so the buildings continue to consume too much energy. People pay 2-3 times more for heating 1 m2 as compared to modern European standards,” Astghine Pasoyan remarked.

According to her, the market offers various loan resources of about EUR 200m, which could be used for Armenia’s residential and public buildings, while the process is advancing very slowly.

She stressed that Armenia needs specialists with knowledge of modern energy efficiency technologies.