North Africa

Through this procurement exercise, the Tunisian government hopes to build six solar plants with a capacity of 10 MW each and ten 1 MW small solar parks.

The Moroccan agency for sustainable energy is pre-qualifying developers for the Noor Midelt II project, a solar complex incorporating CSP and PV elements.

The solar park is set to be built across three phases, and will be located in Tunisia’s southernmost region of Remana, in the Sahara Desert. The project was conceived by the Tunisian Goverment to support organic farming and improve security at the border with Libya.

The new tenders, which will be open to both domestic and international players, will select grid-connected IPP projects totaling 150 MW and off-grid hybrid gas/diesel and solar projects with a combined capacity of 50 MW.

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.

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

The project will be developed by local renewable energy developer Soliwind. Around 30% of the energy needs of the airport will be covered by the power output of the PV system.

The Tunisian government hopes to allocate 210 MW of wind and solar capacity through the tender. Bids for PV projects must be submitted by Nov. 15, 2017.

The Algerian government is set to launch a tender for the construction of large-scale PV projects totaling 4 GW. The tender will be held in three 1,350 MW phases and will select projects with an average capacity of 100 MW.