Tunisia has granted 187 licences for the deployment of renewable energy systems for self-consumption mainly to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Industry, Mines and Energy Minister Fatma Thabet Chiboub said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the National Renewable Energy Conference in Tunis on Tuesday, she said the framework also allows private companies to produce and sell electricity, strengthening the private sector’s contribution to the energy transition.

Major energy sector reforms implemented by Tunisia include the creation of the Energy Transition Fund and Law 2015-12, which opened electricity generation to the private sector through three regimes - the concession regime via public tenders (solar PV projects greater than 10 MWp and wind greater than 30MW); the authorisation regime via calls for projects (solar lesser than or equal to 10 MWp and wind less than or equal to 30MW) and self-consumption (all capacities).

Chiboub said the Energy Transition Fund, created in 2005, provides an interest rate subsidy of up to three percentage points on loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects between 2026 and 2028.

Tunisia has set a target of increasing renewable energy’s share to 35 percent of electricity production by 2030.

(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com) 

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