The funds will be used by local state-owned utility STEG to support the deployment of 85 MW of new residential PV capacity across the Northern African country.
Attijari bank, a Tunisia-based unit of Moroccan financial services provider Attijariwafa Bank, which is itself part of Morocco’s king Mohammed VI’s holding company the SNI, has agreed to provide Tunisia’s state-owned power and gas provider Société tunisienne de l’électricité et du gaz (STEG) with 182 million TND ($72.9 million) for its rebate solar energy program Prosol 2017-2021.
Under the program, the STEG hopes to deploy around 85 MW of residential and commercial PV capacity throughout the country. According to Attijari, this is the third time it has agreed to finance the Prosol-Selec program, which has been running since 2010.
The program offers incentives for the use of domestic installations up to 5 kW: offering a subsidy from the FNME representing 30% of the cost of the investment, with an upper limit of 3,000 dinars (around $1,200) per kW and 15,000 dinars per installation. Furthemore, an extra premium of 10% of the investment cost is granted by Italian Ministry of Environment (MIET) through the MEDiterranean Renewable Energy Centre (MEDREC). Moreover, Attijari bank is granting 5-year loans which can be refunded, with disregard to the added interests, on the bill of the STEG.
The program also offers incentives for solar thermal collectors. The STEG aims at installing around 500,000 installations of this kind by 2021 thanks to a financial support amounting to around 179 million TND.
Tunisia currently has only 15 MW of installed PV capacity, and a 10 MW PV project under construction by Italian developer Ternienergia.
Under its renewable energy strategy, Tunisia aims at achieving 4.7 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
PV-Magazine
