A $48 Million financing package will enable the construction of an energy bridge between Italy and Tunisia (Tunisia-Italy Interconnection Cable) come to a reality. The investment package will assist Tunisia state owned national electricity and gas utility company, in constructing a 200km, 600-Megaatt high voltage direct current submarine with interconnection cable that will connect the electricity transmission networks of Tunisia and Italy in four years’ time. This interconnection will allow for the cross border trade of electricity between this two great nations.
The energy bridge will also help to reduce generation costs and renewable curtailment in Italy and Tunisia,in this long run ,Tunisia is expected to export renewables to European nations, through this environmental and climate externalities will be reduced. The financing will highly help to integrate the European and North African Nations electricity grids and speed up the development of renewable energy in this great nation.
Through financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to societe Tunisienne de l”Electricite et du Gaz (STEG), this partnership can also support the energy transition and the decarbonisation of Tunisia” energy sector.
Cost of the Tunisia-Italy Interconnection Cable Project
With a total cost of $ 985.1 million, STEG and TERNA,the Italian transmission system operator will implement the project jointly. The project will also benefit from an investment grant of $ 32.3 million, from the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
This EBRDS financing is dedicated to the construction of this two countries interconnector (ELMED as its name )on Tunisian side and its part of a $133.6 million loan package co-financed by the European Investments Bank (EIB) and kreditanstalt fur wiederaufbau (KFW)
In addition, the World Bank, which it was earlier approved $268.4 million in financing for ELMED is financing the converter station and associated transmission infrastructure in Tunisia.
With a $5.3 million grant from the EU neighborhood Investment platform, this EBRD financing will be accompanied by a comprehensive technical cooperation package for the policy dialogue in which they will support the regulatory setup to operationalize and commercialize the ELMED interconnector.
This will also help and promote the development of a decarbonation roadmap for Tunisia’s energy sector which aims to develop a guarantee-of-origin scheme in Tunisia .This promotion will be key to achieving the decarbonisation targets in the line with the Paris Agreement, by building a renewable energy framework in the line with the EU regulations.
Other Similar Projects
Xlinks, which is Morocco-UK Power Project will be the new electricity generation facility that is solely powered by both solar and wind energy combined with a battery storage facility. Situated at Morocco’s renewable energy rich region of Guelmim Oued Noun, it will be connected only to Great Britain via 4000km (2485 miles) HVDC sub-sea cables.
This first of a kind project will have the capacity to generate up to 11.5GW of zero carbon electricity from the sun and wind to deliver 3.6GW of reliable energy for an average of 19+ hours daily. This is deemed enough to provide low-cost, clean power to the equivalent of over 7 million British homes and upon completion, the project will be capable of supplying a total of 8 percent of the electricity needs of Great Britain. The investment helped close the latest funding round for Xlinks First, capping $110 million that has been raised up to date, according to Chief Executive Officer James Humfrey.
Also read: Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project
