Tunisia Approves Construction of 500 MW Solar Farms by International Firms

Tunisia has granted licenses to four international companies to construct solar farms with a combined capacity of 500 megawatts. The projects represent a total investment of 1.2 billion dinars ($386.31 million). The announcement was made by the energy ministry on Monday, March 24. The licenses were awarded to Qair International SAS (France) for two plants totaling 300 MW, Voltalia (France) for a 100 MW solar farm, and Scatec (Norway) and Aeolus (Japan), a unit of Toyota Tsusho, for a 100 MW project. These projects are the first to be awarded as part of Tunisia's international tender for renewable energy projects, which aims to develop 1,700 MW of renewables capacity by 2027. The government anticipates saving $200 million annually by reducing natural gas consumption.