Categories: Tunisia Updates
      Date: Jul  7, 2009
     Title: Nur Energie at the Italian embassy in London

At the invitation of the Italian and German embassies in London, Till Stenzel, COO of Nur Energie presented to an audience of over 75 energy professionals and policy-makers its project plans for a first large-scale solar export project from Tunisia to Italy. Highlighting the EU's goal of meeting 20% of energy consumption with renewable energy by 2020, importing solar electricity from Northern Africa to Europe could provide a cost-effective and efficient way of contributing to this goal. Given the superior solar resource in North Africa, the extra-costs of electricity cables across the Mediterranean are more than compensated for. Furthermore, such projects could provide an important contribution to the local economies of the host countries.

Important challenges for policy-makers are the design of new regulatory frameworks that will effectively govern the large-scale transmission of electricity between the Southern and Northern Shore, as well as investment frameworks that will attract international investors to such projects.