Amea Power, a Dubai-based renewable energy business, will build a $86 million, 120 megawatt solar power project in Tunisia to accelerate the country's transition to sustainable energy. According to the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, the project will be the "first large-scale, privately financed" solar project in Tunisia and one of the country's major infrastructure public-private partnership projects in more than a decade.
Amea Power will receive up to $26 million in loan financing from IFC, including $13 million in concessional financing through the Clean Technology Fund. The African Development Bank will also offer up to $26 million in loan funding, including $13 million from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa. According to IFC, the package will help with the development, funding, building, operation, and maintenance of the project in Tunisia's Kairouan governorate.
The contract for the project was ratified by the Tunisian government in March last year and is part of a renewable energy programme outlined by the government in 2018, as per thenationalnews.
“The government is expressing its firm commitment to successfully bring to term the 120MW Kairouan PV Solar project, which represents a significant step forward in the country's energy transition,” said Tunisia’s Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani.
Countries must quadruple global installed renewable energy capacity to 11,000 gigatonnes by 2030 in order to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, the world must increase renewable energy spending from $1.8 trillion in 2023 to $4.5 trillion per year by the start of the next decade in order to reduce global warming to 1.5°C, according to the IEA.