Tunisia - Carbon Finance (CBF) Sidi Daoud Wind Farm Project


The Sidi Daoud Wind Farm project is the first of this size in Tunisia and the first to be connected to the national grid, thus paving the way to the scaling-up of wind power in the country. The wind farm is located in Sidi Daoud approximately 100 km North-East of Tunis.
Société Tunisienne de l’Electricité et du Gaz (STEG) chose this location based on a feasibility study by US Power (1991) of the national wind power potential. The Sidi Daoud wind farm comprises 26 wind turbines of 1.32 MW each and a transformation substation. A newly built 22.6 km high voltage transmission line, replacing an old medium voltage line, allows the evacuation of the power generated by the wind farm to the national electricity grid.

The project is expected to generate approximately 95,000 MWh per year (load factor: 32%), all of which is to be totally fed into the national grid. As thermal plants dominate STEG’s power generation, the implementation of the project will lead to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions that would have otherwise been emitted by fossil fuel-fired power plants.

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The development objective of this project (PDO) is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing electricity generated from fossil fuel-fired power plants by electricity from a newly built wind farm with an installed capacity of 34.32 MW. The Sidi Daoud wind farm is expected to generate about 50,000 tCO2eq emission reductions (ERs) annually.

Tunisia pushes green energy, cuts solar panel prices


The government is working to spread the use of solar power, which can enable consumers to save up to 70% on their hot water bills.



Tunisia pushes green energy, cuts solar panel prices


The government is working to spread the use of solar power, which can enable consumers to sav

The Tunisian government has slashed the prices of solar panels in a bid to cut dependence on imported power and lower ordinary people's household expenses.

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In addition to providing a sizeable 30% discount on solar panels, which cost between 1,350 and 1,850 dinars, the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company is working with banks to provide customers with an affordable five-year instalment plan for such purchases.

The deals are part of a general energy plan, revised by Parliament in February 2009, which includes 40 projects in the period 2010-2016 to bring more solar energy to homes and cut carbon emissions by 1.5 million tonnes per year. Solar energy is the power source of choice for just 1% of Tunisians, according to the Transatlantic21 Association, which monitors the global use of clean energy.

Economist Jannet Ben Abdellah told Magharebia that solar energy "enables the consumer to save up to 70% of hot water consumption costs".

Despite such incentives, ordinary Tunisians' reaction to the government measures has been mixed. According to engineer Assil Shihabi, the demand for solar panels will depend largely on geography.

"People in urban areas have started to demand [solar] services", she told Magharebia. "But ... in remote areas, especially in southern Tunisia, which is rich in solar energy and where temperature is higher than 40 degrees Celsius, people still don't know much about solar heaters".

Tunis homeowner Hamida Laouati is among those who have decided not to take advantage of the government measures. "Winter in Tunisia is short," she said, and solar power will "only provide hot water".

"However, if one day they manage to use [solar power] in lighting, I'll be the first one to participate without any hesitation," she concluded.

Other Tunisians have been happy to give solar power a try. Faicel Ben Zina has been using it for a year, and supports the government's project.

"I will have a refund of the costs I paid [for the panels and installation] in 10 years' time," he told Magharebia. "After that, I'll consume [electricity] for free."

Electricity costs are a concern for plugged-in Tunisia, which was ranked first in Powering Africa Foundation's annual ranking of electricity-dependent nations. According to the foundation, 99% of Tunisians have access to electricity.

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Green Party chief Mongi Khamassi said this latest push for solar technology underlines Tunisia's commitment to environmental goals.

"Tunisia ... has high capabilities to develop the use of solar energy to produce electricity", he said in a statement to Magharebia on February 4th, observing that Tunisian soil receives the equivalent of 2,000 watts of sun rays per hour per day.

Solar energy "seems to be promising", Khamassi said. "Especially since many researchers have found solutions to the problem of storing huge quantities of renewable energies".

Tunisia is not alone in the Maghreb in terms of its solar ambitions. Morocco recently rolled out plans to spread the use of the greener, more renewable energy source. The kingdom's $9 billion solar project targets creating capacity of 2,000 MW by 2020 and reducing reliance on imports of electricity, oil and gas.:)


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Solar projects shine in North Africa

RABAT, Morocco, March 24 (UPI) -- North Africa is taking a shine to solar power in a big way, with plants slated for Morocco and Tunisia as a German-led consortium pushes ahead with the world's most ambitious solar project in the Sahara Desert.

The $555.3 billion Desertec project is designed to turn the Sahara's endless sunlight into carbon-free electricity that will supply 15 percent of energy-hungry Europe's power and lessen its dependence on natural gas from Russia.

Separately, the Moroccan government hopes to invest $9 billion in a solar energy program over the next decade.

This means big-ticket contracts could be up for grabs from major European, mainly French energy concerns, such as GDF Suez; oil giant Total; Areva, which specializes in building nuclear plants, and St. Gobain which manufactures mirrors and photovoltaic panels.

Paris's Maghreb Confidential online newsletter says the French were lining up to join the program when Moroccan Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra presented her investment program to her French counterpart, Jean-Louis Borloo, March 8-9 in Paris.

The centerpiece of the Moroccan plan is a Franco-Moroccan solar power plant generating 20-40 megawatts and exporting up to 4 MW to France.

That's a relatively modest project. But the Moroccans are hoping that it will lay the groundwork for more ambitious projects that will boost solar power exports to Europe and beyond.

One project being mooted for Morocca's Solar Plan is a 500MW solar power station and at least nine international companies are bidding. They include Nexant of California and Fichtner Solar of Stuttgart, Germany, which has won contracts to design power plants at Ain beni Mather in Morocco, Hassi R'Mei in Algeria and Kuraymat in Egypt.

In neighboring Tunisia, the government unveiled a solar plan in late 2009 that includes some 40 renewable energy projects, such as thermo-solar photovoltaic power plants, with a cost of $2.67 billion.

Desertec is by far the most complex of all the solar projects currently under way. It is still in the planning stage and construction isn't expected to begin for another 2-3 years.

It has big-name partners, such as Deutsche Bank and Siemens, and is still attracting new companies, such as First Solar, a U.S. photovoltaic company that has constructed utility-scale solar plants in the deserts of the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

Using a method known as concentrated solar power it would generate inexhaustible and affordable quantities of energy across the Mediterranean -- and even on a global scale if necessary.

One of its big attractions is that it would emit no carbon dioxide, making it the world's biggest green-energy project. If Desertec does get off the ground, it would be the largest green-energy project on the planet.

In theory, a global system of solar thermal power would also eliminate the prospect of resource wars erupting in the years ahead as the planet's natural resources that currently produce energy -- oil, gas, coal, timber and water -- disappear.

The idea for this massive project to harness the sun's energy on a gigantic scale originated with a group of European scientists and politicians called the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation.

The concept of large-scale solar power has been around for some time but was never able to make the breakthrough because of cheap oil.

Desertec's backers believe it will open the door to a new era of environmentally friendly generated power on a massive scale.

That would keep Europe at the forefront of the struggle against climate change and help North African and European economies to expand within the limits of greenhouse gas emissions.

Its critics caution that there are numerous pitfalls, among them the vagaries of North African politics and the perception that European projects like Desertec is just another form of economic plundering by the old colonial powers.

According to Nature magazine, the solar-cell market has been growing by an average by 31 percent a year for the last decade, and enthusiasts predict a 20-25 percent growth rate in the next few years.

Every year, the sun produces 630,000 terawatt hours -- a terawatt equals 1 trillion volts -- of energy in North Africa that is untapped. Europe consumes 4,000 terawatt hours of energy a year. That's only 0.6 percent of the unused energy that falls on the North African desert.

بئر القصعة ـ وات
بمناسبة الاحتفال باليوم الوطني للنظافة والعناية بالبيئة واليوم العالمي للبيئة تولى الرئيس زين العابدين بن علي صباح أمس الخميس بمنطقة سوق الجملة ببئر القصعة الاشراف على الموكب الرسمي لتدشين وحدة التثمين الطاقي للنفايات العضوية التي أحدثت بهدف دعم منظومات التصرف في النفايات وتنويع مصادر الطاقة والحد من التلوث. وكان رئيس الدولة لدى حلوله ببئر القصعة محل استقبال حار وترحيب كبير من قبل عديد المواطنين واطارات الجهة والعاملين بمؤسسات المنطقة.
وتولى رئيس الدولة ازاحة الستار على الرخامة التذكارية لوحدة التثمين الطاقي للنفايات العضوية. واستمع الى بيانات حول خصوصيات هذه الوحدة التي تقوم بانتاج الغاز الحيوي من نفايات الخضر والغلال وفضلات الزيوت الغذائية وذلك الى جانب استخراج السماد العضوي من هذه النفايات. وتعرف على حجم انتاج هذه الوحدة للطاقة الذي قدر بقرابة 2 فاصل 4 جيقاوات ساعة سنويا مما يمكن من تغطية حاجيات اسواق الجملة ببئر القصعة من الكهرباء واستخراج السماد العضوي لاستخدامه في الفلاحة البيولوجية.
وسيمكن هذا المشروع من توفير مصاريف نقل النفايات الى المصب وسداد فاتورة كهرباء الاسواق فضلا عن دوره في خلق مواطن شغل إضافية في أعمال فرز وجمع ونـقل ومعالجة النفايات العضويـة.
كما اطلع رئيس الدولة بهذه المناسبة على عدد من البرامج والمشاريع البيئية والمتعلقة خاصة بتحسين المياه المعالجة وتطوير التسميد وانتاج الديزال الحيوي من زيوت التغذية المستعملة متعرفا على حجم استثماراتها وكيفية سير عمل فرز المواد وتجميعها ونقلها ومساهمتها في خلق مواطن رزق.
ثم تولى الرئيس زين العابدين بن علي تشغيل وحدة التثمين الطاقي للنفايات العضوية ايذانا باستغلالها.
وشدد رئيس الدولة على ضرورة إيلاء عناية خاصة بعمليات تجميع النفايات الصلبة المضرة بسلامة البيئة والمحيط ومنها بالخصوص جمع البلاستيك وكذلك البطاريات بمختلف أحجامها وأنواعها وذلك من خلال التحسيس بأهمية تجميعها وعدم التخلص منها بطريقة عشوائية.
ولدى استفساره عن كيفية تجميع الزيوت الغذائية المستعملة وطرق معالجتها، أوصى الرئيس زين العابدين بن علي بدعم هذه الجهود واستكمال كافة مراحل استخراج الديزال الحيوي.
وأكد رئيس الدولة على إحكام دراسة مثل هذه المشاريع خاصة من حيث الكلفة والجدوى لاختيار الأنسب منها على مستوى المردودية الاقتصادية فضلا عن وظيفتيها الاجتماعية والبيئية بما يؤمن نجاحها وديمومتها.