Scatec/Aeolus sign Sidi Bouzid II PPA
The project has a fixed TD0.112/kWh (US$0.036/kWh) tariff with the national grid operator, which it secured in December as one of the winning bids in Tunisia's renewables tender programme that has been running since 2019.
The next bids for 150MW wind and 200MW solar are due on March 25 and April 30, respectively. The wind schemes are capped at 75MW each and solar at 100MW per individual scheme.
One more tender for solar is scheduled to launch by September and a wind tender is due to launch by November, always tendering projects capped at 100MW and 75MW per project for solar and wind, respectively.
Once all tenders are complete, the government expects to have awarded at least 1GW solar and 600MW wind PPAs between 2022 and 2025.
Alongside Scatec/Aeolus' Sidi Bouzid II scheme, the December auction awarded 100MW to Voltalia in Gabes and 298MW to Qair, including a 100MW solar plant in Gafsa and a 198MW scheme in El Khobna.
The lowest bid in the 2024 round was Qair's TD0.098/kWh for Gafsa while it bid TD0.103/kWh for El Khobna. The Scatec/Aeolus JV bid was TD0.112/kWh for Sidi Bouzid II and Voltalia's winning bid was TD0.124/kWh.
Other bidders for 100MW projects in the 2024 auction but did not win include Amea Power with TD0.131/kWh and Aquo on TD0.138/kWh.
The 60MW Sidi Bouzid I and 60MW Tozeur solar plants were project financed in 2024 with a €69.4m debt package provided by the EBRD and Proparco (see PFI 775).
In October 2023, AMEA Power signed the first internationally bid solar deal in the country, the 120MW Kairouan project, via African Development Bank and the IFC.
