Northern Africa

Through the tender, the Tunisian government has awarded contracts for six 10 MW and four 1 MW projects. All have received preliminary approval from the Minister of Energy, Mines and Renewable Energies, Khaled Kaddour at the beginning of May.

In a conversation with pv magazine, Mouloud Bakli, president of the Algerian solar energy association, Club Energia (branch of FCE), says that multiple solar pipelines are set to be restarted by the Algerian government. Furthermore, two new tenders, for Independent Power Producer, and solar hybrid power, projects, will be issued by the end of Q2 2018. For all of these plans, local content requirement rules will apply. The existing local PV module industry, on the other hand, is expected to reach a combined annual capacity of 550 MW by the end of the year, while several manufacturers of mounting structures, cables, solar glass and junction boxes are already operating in the market.

The solar PV parks, which will range in size from 1 MW to 10 MW, will sell power to the country’s state-owned utility, Société Tunisienne de l’électricité et du gaz (STEG) under a long-term PPA.

Canadian Solar Inc. has signed an agreement with Global Investment Holdings (GIH) to develop up to 300 MW of solar PV projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Through the tender, the Algerian government aims to deploy 50 MW of renewable energy generation capacity in the south of the country – where local power utility, Sonelgaz is currently still relying on diesel generators for electricity production – and another 100 MW to 120 MW at other unspecified locations.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is now assisting the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC) for the tendering of two solar PV projects, is seeking consultants to help the country’s transition from FITs to auctions.

The international financial institution is assisting the grid operator of the Northern African country, ONEE, in evaluating the current capacity of its very high voltage (VH) and high voltage (HV) networks to absorb additional power from renewables.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. The tender is set to be published on April 27.

The Algerian manufacturer will distribute its modules mainly to the Algerian market, but also in other African countries, including Senegal, Ivory Coast and Benin.