The Tozeur photovoltaic solar power plant will soon be connected to the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG) uilt by TerniEnergia, the works will be completed by the end of June 2019. The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract between the Italian company and the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company also provides for the installation of a battery storage system, to help the facility to provide electricity at night.
The 10 MW Tozeur solar power plant will avoid 8.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The project will be profitable for STEG which will save the equivalent of 2,900 tonnes of oil per year.
In Tunisia, this project is part of the government’s policy to diversify the electricity supply, improve independence from fossil fuels (oil, gas, etc.) and “develop the enormous renewable energy potential (solar and wind energy)”.
The Tozuer project whose construction started in 2017 is financed by a €11.5 million loan supplemented by a €1.5 million grant from Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the German development agency. The financial support comes under the European Union’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF).
The Tozeur solar project also received a €500,000 donation from the German government as part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI), an effort by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. It focuses on mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change and the protection of biological diversity.
TunisianMonitorOnline
