Tunisia Awards 500 MW Solar Projects

Tunisia has awarded several solar power projects to bidders in a bid to move closer to its international obligations for its domestic renewable share of energy. The combined output of all these solar projects will be 500 MW.

The new solar projects will be located in different governorates of Tunisia. The largest of all is coming up in Tataouine that will have a capacity of 200 MW. The solar project in Kairouan will be of 100 MW and Gafsa will also be of 100 MW. Solar projects in Tozeur and Sidi Bouzid will be of 50 MW each. The specific information of these projects was provided by the government last week on its official website. It also said that the six projects will attract a total investment of more than $400 million.

These projects were awarded as part of concession system of Tunisia in 2019 to Norwegian renewable power producer Scatec ASA, a consortium of France’s Engie and Moroccan energy company Nareva, as well as a consortium of AMEA Power LLC and TBEA Xinjiang New Energy Co Ltd. The lowest bid, at just under $25 cents at the time was made by Scatec ASA.

Tunisia, as per the commitments made under the Paris Agreement, will have to add about 3.8 GW of green power capacity which is necessary to boost the share of its renewables to 30 per cent by 2030.

It has also been said that the new projects will help Tunisia to reduce its natural gas imports by about 6 percent. This implies that there will be a cut in the fuel costs by 130 million Tunisian Dollars.

Just recently, the Regional Director of World Bank Paul Noumba Um had announced that the institution will invest in the renewable energy sector in Tunisia. The World Bank is eager to offer technical support to institutions operating in the sector. Um had a meeting with Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy of Tunisia, Neila Nouira Genji.

He said that his institution will support the Tunisian Gas and Electricity Company (STEG) that will help the institution to augment its productivity and also improve the country’s electricity network.