The Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy has granted development licenses for four solar PV projects in Tunisia, with a combined capacity of 500 MW. France’s Qair International will build a 100 MW solar plant in the Kasr region, Gafsa province, and a 200 MW project in the Al-Khabna region, Sidi Bouzid, while the French developer Voltalia will construct a 100 MW solar park in Gabès. In addition, a consortium of Norway’s Scatec and Japan’s Aeolus will develop a 100 MW solar power plant near Mazouna, Sidi Bouzid.
The projects are expected to come into operation starting in 2027 and will be able to produce about 1.1 TWh/year of clean power. They were selected under a 1.7 GW renewable energy tender, in which the lowest awarded rate was US$3.18c/kWh.
In 2022, Tunisia adopted a law on renewables aimed at covering 12% of its power mix with renewables by 2020 and 35% by 2030. However, despite the launch of several auction rounds since 2017, the development of the programme is far behind the initial schedule, with only 5% of renewables in the power mix in 2020 and 6% in 2023 (4.9% solar, 1.5% wind and less than 1% hydropower). In December 2024, the government of Tunisia approved two power generation tenders under the concession regime, seeking to procure 1,700 MW of renewable power capacity.