Rome, 28th June 2022 - Today, RES4Africa held the digital event Towards 30% Renewable Energy Electricity: Trends and Challenges in Tunisia, dedicated to Tunisia’s energy sector. The gathering, hosted online, provided the opportunity of deepen crucial topics, barrers and future perspectives of the country’s clean energy landscape, thanks to the contributions of the international experts and institutional representatives who partecipated.

Tunisia is pursuing an ambitious low-carbon strategy, in compliance with the Paris Agreement and other international sustainability commitments. The Tunisian government is highly interested in diversifying into renewable energy technologies (especially wind and solar) to help meet growing domestic electricity demand and increase the country’s energy security. The new Tunisia Solar Plan (TSP), amended in 2016, aims at raising the generation from renewable energy resources to 30% of total electricity production by 2030.

Important results were achieved so far in the country, both in terms of large scale and decentralized renewable energy, and this commitment has to be upheld in the short and medium-term in order to meet the objectives of the energy transition. In the long-term, the new 2050 low-carbon strategy foresees massive investments in renewable energies, in particular wind, solar and biomass, contributing to reach a share of 80% of RE in the electricity mix by 2050. With the objective of ensuring energy independence and sustainable development, innovative and effective policies will have to be implemented involving all the relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector in order to improve the regulatory framework and crowd-in the necessary investments.

« Italy and Tunisia have a long-standing, articulated and structured cooperation also in the energy sector, which dates back to the times of Tunisian independence. » stated H.E Lorenzo Fanara, Ambassador of Italy to Tunisia « Together, we want to give a new dimension to this energy cooperation, which may be extended to the renewable energy sector and translated into strategic investments, such as that of the ELMED submarine cable ».

« Tunisia's current energy challenges are cross-cutting, including lenghty administrative procedures, regulatory and financial issues and limited market openness. Addressing this issues will be the key action to encourage the development od renewable energy sources in Tunisia.» added Roberto Vigotti, RES4Africa’s Secretary-General.

Panelists:

Roberto Vigotti, Secretary-General at RES4Africa Foundation

H.E Lorenzo Fanara, Ambassador of Italy to Tunisia

Christophe Lits, Junior Market analyst at SolarPower Europe

Belhassen Chiboub, General Director of Electricity and Renewable Energy at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines of Tunisia

Ali Kanzari, President of the Chambre syndicale du Photovoltaique

Paolo Pacciarini, Principal at AFRY

Angelo Ferrante, Secretary-General at Med-TSO

Ibtissem Hammi, Regulatory Affairs Nord Africa & Middle East at Enel Green Power

Marouen Cheour, Head of Energy & Sustainability North Africa at RINA

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