The Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG) has commissioned an electricity generating wind farm at El Alia (Bizerte), after a trial period that had begun on February 20, 2012.
The wind farm has a production capacity of 50 megawatts of electricity generated by 37 wind turbines. It is part of a project to produce electricity, using wind energy to produce 120 megawatts at the end of the first phase, scheduled for August 2012, according to STEG.
According to forecasts, this capacity will increase to 190 megawatts upon completion of the second phase before the end of 2013.
The project spreads over two sites, the first in Metline / El Alia and the second in Jebel Kchayta, between the delegations of Menzel Bourguiba and Utique and involves the installation of 143 wind turbines, located 55 meters from ground level.
The 600-million-dinar project will cover the needs of 350,000 subscribers in low-voltage energy for domestic use. The production of these turbines is 120,000 tons of oil equivalent (TOE), which is likely to reduce domestic imports. Similarly, it will reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide by 300,000 tons per year.
Ulrich Laumanns, Project Manager for Renewable Energies And Energetic Efficiency at the German Agency of International Cooperation (GIZ), was recently in Tunis for a workshop on renewable energies, during which he indicated that GIZ has just completed the feasibility study for the wind farm. The preliminary review shows that such capacity must be equal or higher than Sidi Daoud’s wind farm, in the north-east of Tunisia, in the Cap Bon region.
The wind farm, which is exploited by the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG), has a production capacity of 55 Megawats. Theoretically, the Thala wind farm should include a minimum of around 30 wind turbines with a unit capacity of 2 Megawats. Other studies are required to determine the choice of equipment to be installed.
The study also reveals that wind power could allow firms higher competitiveness, as they provide an alternative to STEG-supplied electricity. Laumanns affirms that if certain equipments will have to be imported, such as wind turbines and wind power mills, several components can however be supplied by local operators. In fact, Sidi Daoud’s wind farm’s masts were made by a Tunisian company, and local businesses had taken charge of electric inter-connection operations and of the civil engineering.
The Thala windmill farm represents a great opportunity for specialized Tunisian firms to develop and promote their expertise, through partnerships with important international companies in the field of renewable energies. The project is expected to kick-start mid-2013, once the complementary studies are complete.
Thala and Kasserine, best known for being home to the Tunisian Revolution which shook the country earlier this year, might thus soon become known for their wind mills, and be the setting to a positive wind of change for Tunisia’s interior regions.
Wind energy in Tunisia
- End 2000: 11 MW (- %)
- End 2001: 11 MW (- %)
- End 2002: 19 MW (+72.8 %)
- End 2003: 10 MW (-47.3 %)
- End 2004: 20 MW (+100 %)
- End 2005: 20 MW (- %)
- End 2006: 20 MW (- %)
- End 2007: 20 MW (- %)
- End 2008: 20 MW (- %)
- End 2009: 20 MW (- %)
- End 2010: 20 MW (- %)
- End 2011: 54 MW (+170 %)
- End 2012: 104 MW (+92.6 %)