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AfrElec RENEWABLES AfrElec

Algeria’s 1-GW solar ambitions

to bear first fruit by 2023

ALBERIA ALGERIA’S Solar 1,000 scheme is expected to in December. The deadline for submitting pro-
begin generating electricity at the end of 2021, posals was set for June 15, but was extended
when the 30-MW Beni Ounif solar park comes following a request by local and international
online. investors that needed more time to conduct
The scheme, which aims to build 1 GW of detailed financial and technical studies.
grid-connected solar capacity, is the first step In the auction, the state will allocate the total
in Algeria’s plans to build 15 GW of renewable capacity in lots of between 50 MW and 300 MW.
energy capacity by 2035. As many as 11 sites have already been selected
Ismail Mougari, director-general of Shaems, for the solar plants.
the state-owned company overseeing the large- The Algerian government has already inau-
scale project, said that the solar park at Beni gurated a 180-MW capacity solar panel factory
Ounif in Bechar Province could start producing in Ouargla. Another 100-MW solar park will
power at the end of next year, or the beginning also be built in the same province.
of 2024 at the latest. The country’s energy strategy aims to increase
The clean power generated by the Beni Ounif the domestic renewable generation capacity to
solar farm will be sold exclusively to state-owned 22 GW, or 27% of the total domestic generation
electricity and natural gas distributor Sonelgaz capacity, by 2030. Solar production will contrib-
for a period of 25 years, Mougari said. ute more than 13.5 GW of the total.™
The call for tenders for the deployment of 1
GW of solar PV capacity across Algeria opened

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