Tunisia’s project to join its power grid to the much larger European electricity network through a 600-megawatt undersea cable to Italy is part of a broader effort by North African countries to connect their energy grids with the continent, the World Bank has told Al-Monitor.
The Tunisia-Italy interconnector (ELMED) project's total cost is around €960 million ($1.06 billion). The European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and German state-owned bank KfW will finance the other part of the Tunisia segment while the transmission company Italian Terna will finance the cost of Italy’s part of the project. The European Union is also providing grant funding of €308 million equally between the Tunisia and Italian segments of the ELMED project.
The project will support the Tunisian government’s target of increasing renewable energy in its energy mix from 3% to 35% by 2030.
On June 21, the World Bank announced it would pump $268.4 million into the project. The funding will help fund the building of the main converter station and associated sub-stations on the Tunisian side, as well as support for the implementation of the interconnector, according to the World Bank. The international financing institution will also provide technical assistance to help establish a renewable energy Center of Excellence to position Tunisia as a training hub for renewable energy projects in North Africa.
