Tunisia awards 16 solar projects

22 Jun 2020
Tunisia awards 16 solar projects

The Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines has selected winners for 16 photovoltaic (PV) solar projects for a 70MW tender. Under the programme, six developers will build and operate 10MW PV IPPs, with ten developers to develop 1MW facilities



The Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines has selected winners for 16 photovoltaic (PV) solar projects for a 70MW tender it launched in July 2019.

Under the programme, six developers will build and operate 10MW PV IPPs, with ten developers to develop 1MW facilities.

The lowest tariff approved was the TNDmillimes 125.3922 ($cents4.44)/ kilowatt hour (kWh) bid submitted by France’s Ecodelta for a 10MW scheme in Medenine. The full list of selected developers for the 10MW and 1MW projects can be found on the ministry’s website.

Energy & Utilities reported in December that Tunisia had awarded contracts for three PV solar IPPs with a combined total capacity of more than 500MW.

Norway’s Scatec was awarded contracts to develop three PV solar projects with a total capacity of 360MW under the IPP renewables programme.

The largest plant, 240MW, will be located in Tataouine, with two 60MW plants to be developed in the areas of Tozeur and Sidi Bouzid respectively.

Two international consortiums were awarded contracts to develop the remaining 100MW photovoltaic (PV) solar projects under the first round of Tunisia’s competitive bidding renewables independent power producer (IPP) programme.

A consortium of China’s TBEA Xinjiang Sunoasis Company and UAE-based Amea Power was awarded the contract to develop the 100MW Project C for a tariff of TND97.920/kWh ($3.44cents/kWh). A consortium of France’s Engie and Morocco’s Nareva Renouvelables was awarded a contract to develop the 100MW Project D (Gafsa) for a tariff of $2.8c/kWh.

The selected developers will sign power purchase agreements (PPAs) with state energy company Societe Tunisienne de l‘Electricite et du Gaz (STEG) for a concession period of 20 years under a build-own-operate (BOO) model.

Scatec will be the lead equity investor in the projects and will also provide the main engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) series. The Norwegian firm will also provider operation and maintenance (O&M) and asset management services for the solar plants.

The projects were part of a competitive bidding process under which developers submitted proposals for five PV projects with a total combined capacity of 500MW in July this year. Scatec submitted the lowest bid for four of the five projects.

The solar projects are part of Tunisia’s plans to install 4.7GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, which is forecasted to account for 30 per cent of the total installed capacity. The country’s power sector is currently dominated by gas-fired power plants, which account for about 97 per cent of total electricity production.

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