Tunisia – Signature of two agreements for construction of photovoltaic power plants

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Fatima Chiboub, the director general of the Tunisian electricity and gas company, Faycal Trifa, and representatives of two Norwegian and Japanese companies have concluded, today at the Palais du Government in The Kasbah, two deals on the creation of two stations to produce electricity from renewable energies in Sidi Bouzid and Tozeur.

The Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy issued in 2018 an international call for tenders to set up 500 megawatts of solar photovoltaic energy on sites offered by the State in Sidi Bouzid (50 megawatts), Tozeur (50 megawatts), Kairouan (100 megawatts), Gafsa (100) megawatts) and Tataouine (200) megawatts).

As for the Kairouan project, assigned to Amea Power and financed by the International Finance Company of the World Bank and the African Development Bank, it is currently in the work stage, and the work of Sidi Bouzid and Tozeur’s projects, funded by Norway The work of the Scatec and Aeolus Foundation of the Japanese group Toyota will begin after the signing of the agreements today on September 18, 2024, the foundation stone being laid on September 19, 2024.

The agreements for the Tataouine and Gafsa projects were inked again on May 8, 2024, and it is anticipated that the five projects will come into operation between the second half of 2025 and 2026.It should be remarked that the national energy transition strategy was developed by 2035 as part of the search for lowering energy deficit and dependence on national resources through a set of programs, in particular the development of exploitation of renewable energies and acceleration of energy efficiency programs.

This seeks to bring the rate of integration of renewable energies into the electrical system at 35% by 2030 by concentrating an additional capacity of renewable energies of around 5,000 megawatts with investments of the order of 4, $ 5 billion (law n ° 12 of 2015). The decree of May 11, 2015, relating to production systems was published.