Akuo Energy announced that in a consortium with its Tunisian partners HBG Holding and Nour Energy, it has signed a power purchasing agreement with state utility STEG for a 10 MWp solar plant, formalizing the Gabès project’s implementation.
This signing marks Akuo’s entry on the Tunisian market and HBG Holding and Nour Energy’s intention of moving towards the renewable energy sector. In order to diversify the country’s energy mix, the Tunisian government has put in place a program to develop renewable energies. It is within the context of this program that it has initiated the Tunisian Solar Plan (TSP), a national program aiming to increase the share of renewables in overall electricity production from 3% currently to 30% by 2030.
The power plant will be equipped with bifacial solar photovoltaic panels laid on trackers that can swivel in order to continually face the sun, thus allowing the panels to receive more sunlight. This project, located in Gabès governorate, is part of a local and sustainable approach, as jobs will be created throughout its life cycle: the site’s construction phase will enable close to 200 jobs to be created and its operational phase another 15. The plant will allow approximately 23 GWh of renewable and decentralized electricity to be produced locally each year, i.e. the equivalent of the consumption of more than 14,000 inhabitants. The project’s financing should be completed in 2021 and the site is expected to become operational in 2022.