Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) — Conergy AG, a German solar company,
won an order from Japanese contractor Takaoka Engineering Co.
Ltd. for a solar installation at a water desalination plant in
southern Tunisia. No terms were disclosed.
The developer will build and supply panels to a 210-
kilowatt photovoltaic plant, the country’s second-largest, at a
new facility operated by state-owned utility Sonede in Ben
Guardane, Conergy said today in an e-mailed statement. Once
connected to the grid next month, the project will cover about
70 percent of the water plant’s power needs.
Tunisia plans to install 1 gigawatt in renewable energy
capacity by 2016 as it expands power generation, with about 250
megawatts of that solar. The targets, announced in 2010, are now
“hardly realistic” given the political situation in the
country after the Arab spring uprising, according to Conergy.
“The Tunisian government is planning to expand renewable
energies in the coming years and is making corresponding
investments,” Conergy board member Alexander Gorski said in the
statement. “Experts are therefore expecting a market potential
of around 200 megawatts there by 2020.”
The solar project at the plant, which makes local
groundwater potable, was funded by a donation from the Japanese
government. Japan will also finance a 5-megawatt solar thermal
power facility at El Borma, Bloomberg New Energy Finance data
show.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Marc Roca in London at
mroca6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
