Gazelle Finance continues to invest in Armenian small and medium enterprises (SME) during this economic downturn, targeting value investment opportunities. Gazelle Finance recently committed an investment of  US$ 1,000,000 in Smart Energy Technologies, a leading regional solar power plant project development company based in Gyumri, Armenia. This investment positions Smart Energy Technologies to roll out 3 megawatts of solar power generation.

“Gazelle Finance specializes in investing in SMEs in high growth sectors,” says the CIO of Gazelle Finance Armenia, Ph.D. Tigran Hovhannisyan. “Distributed power generation is an attractive market segment for us because of the combination of government incentives promoting renewable energy and Smart Energy Technologies’ proven know-how to build-out small scale turn-key solar plants in  a very cost-efficient manner.”

Distributed power project development companies, like Smart Energy Technoligies, are well-positioned to rapidly grow the largely untapped solar power market segment. Solar energy’s share in total electricity generation is still extremely small in Armenia, representing just 0.28%, yet the IEA estimates that the optimal share should be closer to 10%.

“Gazelle Finance provided a very creative financing solution to our company, which allows us to rapidly scale-up our business,” says the co-owner of Smart Energy Technologies Mr. Sahak Sahradyan. “With Gazelle Finance’s support, we can now provide project-based financing to our customers backstopped by secure energy offtake agreements and attractive feed-in tariffs. The demand for distributed grid-connected solar power plants is increasing year over year. More and more households and businesses opt for renewable sources of electricity supply, particularly because it results in improved energy security and generates additional income.”