Within AREEM project, energy saving and efficient measures (roofs, doors and windows and/or insulation of building envelope, etc.) were implemented in 45 residential buildings in Vayk (12 buildings) and Spitak (33 buildings) and 2 public buildings (House of Culture in Vayk, Kindergarten N2 in Spitak). This provided approximately 1821 MWh of energy savings per year, reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 479 tonnes. In 5 buildings in Spitak were implemented thermal insulation measures which entailed at least 65% energy saving per year.

EU-funded  Programme 'Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects’ (CoM-DeP) “Access to Renewable and Efficient Energy in Municipalities Vayk and Spitak” project, implemented by Habitat Armenia in partnership with Spitak and Vayk municipalities summarized the results.

On November 30 in Yerevan, Armenia was held the closing ceremony of the EU-funded  Programme 'Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects’ (CoM-DeP) “Access to Renewable and Efficient Energy in Municipalities Vayk and Spitak” project, implemented by Habitat Armenia in partnership with Spitak and Vayk municipalities.

Access to Renewable and Efficient Energy in Municipalities Vayk and Spitak (AREEM) project supported the municipalities of Spitak and Vayk to develop and test replicable and efficient model(s) of energy savings through use of effective measures and renewable sources in residential and public buildings, incorporated with their Community Development Plans/or SEAPs within the CoM requirements.

During the closing ceremony of the project in her welcoming remarks, the EU Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin highlighted that Energy Efficiency is one of the priority areas of the European Union's support in Armenia.

The EU supports local authorities in implementing sustainable energy policies, improving the security of energy supply, and facilitates their contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Within the project thermal refurbishment of a total of 45 residential buildings were carried out. 1,160 persons in Spitak and 2,640 persons in Vayk benefited from the project.

Sergey Arzumanyan, AREEM Project Manager stated that the work carried out in the target buildings of the project is very important in terms of increasing the comfort of the apartments and saving the owners money.

In Spitak 1 Solar photo voltic station and in Vayq 4 photo voltic stations were opened as a result of the project.

The Mayor of Spitak Gagik Sahakyan stated that there were a lot of difficulties but now the community has satysfying results.

The manager of energy issues of Vayq municipality Gagik Mushkambaryan stated that the apartment buildings in their city were mostly built 30-40 years ago, and until the beginning of the project almost were not renovated. So the project was in time.

Artem Kharazyan, national expert of the ‘Covenant of Mayors – East’ initiative in Armenia, presented the aims of the initiative, the results and main challenges of the initiative during the closing ceremony of Access to Renewable and Efficient Energy in Municipalities Vayk and Spitak project. He stated that due to this project the number of Covenant of Mayors-East initiative signatory communities had increased.

Photo by EU delegation to Armenia