Featured in Further upstream – 10-2024

A turning point for Algerian solar

Algeria has long limited the use of solar to villages in the Sahara but two large-scale tenders, for 3 GW of generation capacity are expected to change that. By including a local content clause, the North African nation aims to build an industry around renewable energy.

By

Gwénaëlle Deboutte

05 Nov 2024

A satellite image shows Ghardaïa province in central Algeria, which has some of the world’s highest solar irradiation levels. | Photo: Copernicus Sentinel data/ESA

By the end of 2023, Algeria had 437 MW of solar generation capacity, according to the national Commission for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency (CEREFE). The country has an average of 3,000 hours of sunshine per year and global horizontal irradiation of almost 1,700 kWh/m²/year in the north and 2,263 kWh/m²/year in the south.Nevertheless, nearly …

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