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UAE-headquartered AMEA Power announced on Wednesday the successful commissioning of its 120 megawatts-peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic plant in Tunisia’s Kairouan Governorate, marking a major milestone for the country’s renewable energy sector.
The project, developed under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state-owned Société Tunisienne de l'Electricité et du Gaz (STEG), was financed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
At $86 million in total investment cost, IFC and AfDB committed up to $26 million each in senior debt, including $13 million each from associated concessional climate funds, namely, Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), respectively.
AMEA Power said the Kairouan plant is Tunisia’s first renewable energy project with an installed capacity above 100MWp, and the first to include an integrated substation using a loop-in/loop-out configuration.
The project, procured under a Build-Own-Operate (BOO) model, is expected to generate around 222 GWh of electricity annually—enough to power 43,000 homes—while helping avoid an estimated 117,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Hussain Al Nowais, Chairman of AMEA Power, said the commissioning “marks an important milestone for Tunisia’s energy transition,” adding that it is also the first renewable project developed under the concession regime to enter commercial operation and the first solar facility connected to STEG’s 225kV network
The Kairouan Solar PV project was awarded in 2019 under Tunisia’s 500MW tender programme, launched in partnership with IFC in 2018.
PPA was signed in June 2021 and ratified by Tunisian government in May 2022. The ground-breaking took place in May 2024.
In May 2024, French renewable energy company Voltalia was awarded 130 MW Segdoud solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant.
Tunisia aims to generate 35 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030.
(Writing by Deva Palanisamy; Editing by SA Kader)
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