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Armenia and its ecology
Armenia is a landlocked country located in the Southern Caucasus. It borders Georgia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran. According to Norges Naturvernforbund, "Armenia’s environment became severely polluted during the Soviet period. The Soviet government pushed heavy industry development to a massive scale, throughout the Soviet Union. The government ignored the environmental harm caused by these industries for too long..." However, Armenia currently ranks 48th among all countries in the Environmental Performance Index, and its position has been significantly improved in comparison with previous years. This means that the Government of the Republic of Armenia has assigned more attention toward a clean environment. It should be noted that Armenia has the highest Environmental Performance index among its neighboring countries: Georgia (101), Azerbaijan (63), Russia (73), Turkey (66) and Iran (83).

Energy sector of Armenia
The total electricity production of Armenia was 7.3 billion KWH in 2014, and energy consumption per capita was 11,269 KWH in 2013. The consumption of energy in Armenia is from five main sources:

According to the World Bank, coal is used for 0% of Armenia's total energy production. That is a big step towards creating non-harmful energy for the Armenian ecology.
 * Natural Gas (42% of total energy production) - mainly imported from the Russian Federation by Gazprom Armenia.
 * Nuclear (38% of total energy production) - the only producer is Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant.
 * Hydro thermal (19% of total energy production) - because Armenia is rich in hydrological resources, it has numerous small hydropower plants across many of its rivers. Several prominent ones are: Hrazdan TPP, Hrazdan 5, and Yerevan CCHP.
 * Wind and small HPPs (12% of total energy production) - wind power plants can be found in "Pushkin Pass," which is located in Lori, Armenia, and small HPPs are Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade of HPPs.

Use of natural gas in Armenia
Armenia does not have any natural gas reserves. Gas is imported from Russia and covers a lot of spheres of the Armenian economy. A significant portion of cars have had petroleum replaced with compressed natural gas, due to its low price. The demand for Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) grew so high that, currently, Armenia ranks first in the world in terms of the proportion of NGVs to the entire number of cars in the country, according to Natural Gas Vehicle Global. Since combustion of natural gas produces less emissions than combustion of petrol, gas has significantly helped to reduce the negative environmental impacts of vehicle use in Armenia. Also, gas has replaced wood as a source of heat in residential areas since the end of the 1990s. Cutting forests was a big issue, especially during the 1991-1995 energy crisis. Large forests were cut down all over Armenia to meet heat demands in the very cold winters. That situation would have continued if gas did not replace wood as a heat source. Overall, gas has significantly helped to reduce the harmful environmental impacts of electricity and general heat production.

Nuclear security in Armenia
Armenia relies heavily on nuclear energy for its electricity production. Specifically, 40% of Armenia's electricity production depends on Metsamor NPP, put into operation in 1976. It is considered to be hazardous to the environment and carries a high risk for sudden explosion.

The NPP's operations were terminated after the Spitak earthquake of 7 December 1988. The earthquake did not damage the plant, but given the seismic instability at the time, the USSR Board of Ministers decided to temporarily shut it down. Later on, during the energy crisis followed by the Soviet Union collapse, the Armenian Government decided to reopen the nuclear power plant, presupposing that safety improvement measurements would be implemented. Three stages of implementation were determined. The first stage will be implemented within the first 3-4 years of the operation. The second stage is planned to take 2-3 years after the first stage. The third is for the rest of the NPP's lifetime.

Thermal power plants and their influence on ecology
A gas-fired thermal power plant built in 2010 in Yerevan was the first major energy facility built in the country since its independence in 1991. Since it is considered to be twice as efficient as others in Armenia, this thermal power plant is meant to cut down on the use of natural gas for energy production. Its capacity is 242 MW, allowing it to produce 25% of Armenia’s electricity output in 2010. Armenia’s thermal energy sector will grow even stronger with the construction of a new and powerful fifth unit of Hrazdan’s power plant. In 2009, Armenia started receiving a small amount of gas from Iran, but it is mostly used to produce electricity, which is the exported back to Iran. This is because Russian gas meets most of Armenia's needs. The following table lists the three thermal power plants, which together account for 24% of Armenia's domestic electricity generation.

As can be seen in the table, the thermal power plants (running on imported natural gas From Iran and Russia) together have 1756 MW capacity. It can be deduced that Armenia continues paying attention to thermal energy production. By paying more attention to TPPs, Armenia continues to have environmental problems.

The influence of thermal power plants on Armenian ecology has had negative effects. Both Hrazdan and Yerevan power plants use mostly fossil fuels, especially natural gas and oil to produce steam, which is used to drive a steam turbine producing electrical energy. The supply of fossil fuels is finite. Exhaustion of low-cost fossil fuels will have significant consequences for energy sources as well as for the manufacture of plastics and many other things. Despite the fact that new sources are being discovered, the rate of discovery is slowing down while the extraction is becoming harder and harder. The concerns of emissions resulted from fossil fuel burning are much more serious. Fossil fuels constitute a significant repository of carbon buried deep underground burning which converts this carbon to carbon dioxide, which is then released into the atmosphere resulting in an increase of carbon dioxide levels. This contributes to the greenhouse effect, which contributes to global warming. Depending on the particular fossil fuel and the method of burning, other emissions may also be produced. Ozone, sulfur dioxide, NO2 and other gases are often released, as well as particulate matter. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides contribute to smog and acid rain.

Armenia's first ecological program
The first ecological program developed in Armenia was Sevan Lake's conflict researches, which happened in 1979. Since 1982, regional environmental schemes were designed for various cities: the capital Yerevan, Vanadzor, Alaverdi, Hrazdan and Kapan were all included in the schemes. After the Spitak earthquake in 1988, a number of educational complexes created and developed ecological departments. In order to reduce emissions from chemical and metallurgical enterprises, different cities and industrial organizations were limited to certain industries. Also, some new technologies, which work without refuse, were tested by some industrial companies.

Sevan Lake's ecological issue
Lake Sevan is the second highest lake in the world with potable (drinking) water (1897m). Lake Sevan is also the biggest (by area) lake in the Caucasian region. The lake is divided into two parts: the so-called Big Sevan, and Small Sevan. Sevan has tectonic-volcanic origin. Apart from the solid amount of potable water, Sevan is also famous for its “inhabitants”: Ishkhan and Sig(a) fishes, which are unfortunately on the verge of extinction. Currently, there are 28 lakes that are effusing into the lake. The biggest are the lakes Masrik, Argich, Dzknadzor, Gavaraget, and Chakqar. Lake Sevan only effuses one river: Hrazdan. Lake Sevan has a huge impact on Armenia and its economy, in particular on the electricity power industry, agriculture, and recreation sphere. As a result, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the lake are crucial for Armenia's economy to thrive. The lake is considered a supreme natural water reserve in terms of both chemistry and biology, and has special protection as established by the government of the Republic of Armenia. Unfortunately, since 1930, because of imprudent usage, the water levels precipitously decreases, which in its turn affects all regional ecosystems, and thwarts the biological/geographical system in general. However, the biggest issue is the precipitously continuing extinction of the lake's fishes. Due to illegal fishing and the thwarted natural state of the lake, many species are about to completely disappear. Hence, the biggest efforts are concentrated on stopping the extinction of fish species, and on bringing the lake back to its natural system. The fish Ishkhan is the brightest example. For a long time, the lake feed populations nearby. There was no monitoring by the government, and as a result, Ishkhan started to become extinct. There used to be four species of Ishkhan in Lake Sevan, but nowadays, due to the reasons mentioned above, two species (Bakhtak and Bojak) are now extinct. There are two endemic species in the lake (Koghak and Beghlui), which are also on the verge of extinction. Crayfish and lobster are endangered too. The main reason for these ecological disasters is illegal fishing. To try and change the current situation, the government passed a law which prohibits the construction of hydroelectric power stations on the rivers that are balancing the lake’s natural state. Another reason for this disaster is nearby mines that are full of chemical refuses and are constantly contaminating the lake, therefore disturbing its ecosystem. The two most contaminating mines are the gold mine called Sotq, and the dunite-peridotite mine called Shorzha. Although the government started to take some steps to rectify the current situation, there is much work still to be done in the future, and it may take decades to finally solve this issue, and to establish a genuine ecosystem and water level.

Qajaran's copper factory and its ecological problems
All factories in Armenia emit large amounts of trash, such as Qajaran's copper factory, situated in the Syunik region. Qajaran's copper factory has used only local raw material during its existence. Because of this fact, it has caused a lot of environmental damage and economic losses due to improper operation of the copper mine. The factory is used mainly for copper and molybdenum, but in addition to that, metallic mines contain more than a dozen other valuable metals. Until 2016, the complex raw material, which contains more than 15 metals, was discarded to the environment as a part of «tailings». By approximate calculations, the accumulated amount of «tailings» reaches 120 tonnes; all of this dumping has been done near Voghji river valley. It contains tellurium, selenium, bismuth, rhenium, galium, and many other metals. According to some researches, only 60% of copper, 70% of molybdenum and 50% polymetallic substances are wrenched.

Alternative Energy
The usage and effectiveness of alternative energy is increasing in the developed parts of Armenia. Alternative and renewable energy sources are understood to be safe energy sources for the environment. These sources of energy, which are used on a long-term basis, are called traditional sources. Among all the alternative energy sources there are some that are used very often nowadays in Armenia. The most used is Solar Energy. Solar energy water heater systems can be seen on each roof of the house. However, the accumulation of solar energy is mostly used by large organizations.