YEREVAN. - A new Swiss investor may appear in the Armenian-Italian project of wind turbine generators in northern Armenia, General Director of Arenergy LLC, Gagik Baghdasaryan, told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

The company was going to build a wind turbine generator from 70 turbines with the overall capacity of 200-210 MWt. They had to be located in Karakhach pass (between Javaghk and Gogarants ranges) on the border of Lori and Shirak provinces in northwestern Armenia.

The company received license for construction back in 2009, but the Italian owner of 80 percent shares, Fortore  Energia S.p.A, didn’t invest anything during this period, although it isn’t a novice in the field and has wind tribunes in Italy, Brazil and Romania. “The Armenian investors who own the remaining 20 percent shares, can’t carry out everything on their own,” Baghdasaryan said. The license was earlier suspended, and at the session of the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) on Wednesday it was finally revoked.

Due to this, even preliminary work hasn’t been carried out in the pass.

“Nevertheless, we are not losing hope that our Italian partners will still start investing. According to them, they will come to Yerevan in the beginning of May. Then we hope to take back the license and seriously start constructing. Besides, it can’t be said that the project presents no commercial interest. A Chinese company earlier wanted to build wind tribunes in Karakhach; Now it is the Swiss one which is ready to become a co-investor. The company’s long-term plans remain the same: construction of 70 turbines of 2-3 MWt. The construction cost in conversion to 1 MWt now comprises roughly 1.3 mln euro,” Baghdasaryan said.