Overview:
Energy for heating (and cooling) represents around 70% of total energy consumption in Tunisia, more than ¾ of the energy consumption of the industrial sector and up to 40% of the energy consumption of buildings. The use of Solar Thermal Energy therefore has significant potential in Tunisia’s various economic sectors.
Tunisia is blessed with an abundance of solar radiation, thanks to its geographical position, with a mean of around 2,000 kWh m‑2 yr‑1. In the country as a whole, areas with the potential for installing Solar Thermal Energy total more than 1,000,000 m2, of which the following have already been identified: 360,000 m2 in the industrial sector, 250,000 m2 in collective habitations (houses, flats, etc.), 170,000 m2 in hotels and 6,000 m2 above covered municipal swimming-pools.
Advantages and Incentives:
Collective Solar Thermal Plants are subject to different grants, loans and investment assistance. These are allocated by the Fund for Energy Transition (Fonds de Transition Energétique – FTE), which represents the principal mechanism for implementing these initiatives. In addition to the FTE however, there also exists complementary assistance in the form of concessionary loans (subsidized credit lines available to developers) and grants from international co-operative funds.
Through the FTE, businesses that install Collective Solar plants may benefit from a grant of 70% of the costs of Consultants’ and Technical Advisors’ services up to a ceiling of 70,000DT; such businesses may also receive grants of 30% of the cost of investment in materials, up to a ceiling of 250DT m-2 of solar panels as indicated in the table below:
PROSOL Industry flagship program:
In cooperation with the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea (MIETM), MEDREC and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program), ANME launched the PROSOL Industry programme in 2010. This programme aims to promote the use of solar thermal technologies in industry and to install 100,000 m² of collectors in Tunisia by 2030.
As the use of solar thermal technologies in industrial processes is complex, various initiatives have been taken to overcome technical and regulatory obstacles. To this end, ANME has researched ways of integrating solar thermal technology in industry and has set up an incentive programme.
In 2018, a pilot project of 1,000 m² of flat solar collectors was put into operation at the Olympias plant in Sousse (formerly Benetton), providing a proportion of the plant’s heat needs.
Industrial solar heat production:
Experiments and pilot projects have shown that the production of industrial heat by solar energy is profitable only by means of thin and concentrated parabolic trough solar collectors.
The following diagram explain the different solar collector technologies and their application ranges and limits.
