Tunisia relies on the sun to provide 12% of the energy

Tunisia relies on the sun to provide 12% of the energy




Tunisia is aiming to boost its production of alternative energies based on its natural potential of the sun and wind, relying on this choice to provide 12% of the country's energy needs within the next three years.

Minister of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energies, Hala Sheikh Roujo, launched the first photovoltaic power plant in the southeast city of Tozeur with the adoption of solar energy, which will be connected to the electricity distribution network from May 2018.

The minister explained that the completion of this plant falls within the framework of the solar plan to generate 30% of electricity in Tunisia from renewable energies and access to the production of 1000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020.

The director general of the state electricity company Moncef al-Harabi said that the capacity of production of the new plant is estimated at 10 megawatts, explaining that this project was established with German funding of 26 million dinars (10.8 million dollars).

He added that the Electricity Company has a plan to develop electricity production from solar energy to reduce the energy deficit, especially in view of the high cost of production in recent years.

Tunisia, according to official data from the Ministry of Energy and Mines, plans to raise the production of programmed projects from this type of capacity to 1,000 megawatts and investments worth 2 billion dinars (equivalent to about 900 million US dollars).

The same data indicate that one-third of the renewable energies will be produced by wind, and two-thirds of solar energy will provide about 12% of the energy needed by the country, over the period between 2017 and 2020.

Energy transition, along with digital transition, is one of the most important pillars of the modern economy, and one of the essentials of sustainable development that has set its 17 goals at the UN level until 2030, said former Energy Minister Manji Marzouk in a blog post on Facebook.

Marzouk's renewable energy program is a strategic one for Tunisia's energy policy in terms of its contribution to economic and social development and environmental conservation.

In recent years, the country has achieved tremendous progress in investment costs, in technology, and in contributing to the diversification of energy sources, especially in electricity production.

He pointed out in the same context that the success of renewable energies is still, even less than the past, in need of a policy of support and encouragement of the State through a legal framework and mechanisms and incentives in financing and marketing of production and collection, and reduce support for polluting energies.

He said: "The legal framework and the applied texts of the renewable energies present on it are observations and conclusions, but it is better for the time to benefit the country from the current framework, which provides many possibilities compared to many countries, while at the same time improving the legal and economic framework and adaptive mechanisms based on its own experience and experiences Global ".

According to government studies, the exploitation of the heat of the solar radiation falling on an area of ​​about 7000 square kilometers of desert areas in Tunisia, enough to achieve self-sufficiency of the country's electricity and achieve an exportable surplus.

Parliament member Nasser Shuwaikh said energy projects, especially those based on alternative energy, were tempting foreign investors, pointing out that Tunisia had great potential to produce alternative energy.

He predicted that the state will rely on solar energy in a large part of the public lighting and electricity-oriented services in the coming years, pointing out that the step taken by the Ministry of Energy to establish a photovoltaic plant to produce electricity is very important in stimulating investments in this direction.

He added that German, Chinese and UAE companies had previously expressed their intention to invest in alternative energies and transfer their technologies to Tunisia, in an attempt to gain precedence in the Maghreb and African markets. He said that these indicators are evidence that the future of energy in the world will be alternative energies, Especially in view of the increasing energy bill, he said.

Investment in this area, despite its recent occurrence in Tunisia, is attracting investors from the private sector, especially after the government has codified this activity, the quantities that can be produced, the marketing methods and the prices to be adopted.

The Tunisian authorities, by providing the legal basis for investing in alternative energies, seek to move from non-renewable energy to clean energy in Tunisia to reduce the cost of energy production from natural gas by 97%, compared with only 3% of the contribution of renewable energies to energy production. Currently.

The solar plan, which the Department of Energy and Mines intends to implement until 2030, requires funding of up to $ 7 billion.

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