The project for the new
solar power plants, called TAFOUK1, is part of the government’s plan to boost
power generation from renewable energy sources. The whole project will require
investments of between US$3.2 billion and US$3.6 billion, and is expected to
create 56,000 jobs during the construction phase and 2,000 jobs during the operational
stage, the government said.
The objective of this
project is to meet the national demand for energy and to preserve our fossil
resources, explains a press release from the Prime Minister. The project would
also position itself on the international market, via the export of electricity
at a competitive price, as well as the export of know-how, added the press
release
The OPEC member generates most
of its electricity from natural gas, and therefore plans to have those solar PV
plants installed between 2020 and 2024, the prime minister’s office said.
Apart from meeting growing
domestic demand and positioning Algeria to export electricity, the new solar
projects will help it preserve its oil and gas resources, the government said.
In Algeria, the oil and gas
industry is the backbone of the economy, accounting for 20 percent of GDP, and
85 percent of total exports, according to OPEC data. The oil price crash hit
Algeria’s finances, and earlier this month, the country decided it would slash its budget for this year by 50 percent due
to the drastically lower income from oil after the price crash.
Algeria – which was already
feeling a squeeze on foreign exchange reserves even before oil prices collapsed
in early May due to the Saudi-Russian oil price war and the global demand crash
in the pandemic – is now taking drastic action to protect its finances this
year.
Due to the low oil prices,
another oil and gas producer in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region,
Oman, has recently decided to liquidate a solar power company it
funded together with Shell because of the persistent depression in oil prices.
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment