PHOTO
A consortium of Spain-based global infrastructure company ACCIONA and Saudi private equity company SWICORP has been awarded the concession for the development and operation of a 75-megawatt (MW) wind farm in Tunisia.
The project, located in Chenenni in Tataouine governorate, is estimated to cost 500 million Tunisian dinars (nearly $165 million), the state-owned Agence Tunis Afrique Press (TAP) reported on Friday.
The report said 14 wind turbines of 6MW capacity would be installed in the mountainous area of Djebel Dahar, located 80 km from Djerba.
The project partners will also build a 225-kilovolt transmission line from Chenenni to Tataouine.
Construction is expected to start at the end of 2025 and take 18 months, the TAP report said, citing an Acciona executive. It said the power generated would be sold to the Tunisian power and gas company (STEG).
The government had launched, since May 2018, prequalification tenders for procuring 500 MW of wind energy capacity (300 MW on state land and 200 MW on private land) and 500 MWp of five solar photovoltaic (PV) projects (on state land). In November 2018, 16 developers were selected for solar PV projects and 12 for the wind projects, the TAP report said.
ACCIONA Energía, the renewables subsidiary of ACCIONA and Enara Bahrain Spv Wll (ENARA), the renewable energy platform of SWICORP, had previously partnered to develop three solar PV plants in Egypt’s Benban photovoltaic complex with a combined capacity of 186 MWp (150 MW rated) at a total investment of around $180 million.
In March 2022, Tunisia granted licences to three international companies to produce 500MW of electricity from renewables representing a total investment of $410.41 million, according to a Reuters report. The licenses were awarded to Scatec, and the consortiums of Engie Nareva and TBEA-AMEA.
Read more:
Tunisia to launch international tenders for 2,000MW of renewable power
Tunisian government approves 100-megawatt solar power project
(Writing by Anoop Menon; Editing by Bhaskar Raj)
