The Tunisian government is distributing solar-powered water heaters to 4,000 families. These kits will help optimise energy consumption in this North African country currently affected by an economic crisis.
According to the Tunisian Ministry of Energy, Mines and Energy Transition, Tunisia wants to reduce its fossil energy consumption by 30% by 2030. As part of this strategy, the National Agency for Energy Management (ANME) recently equipped 400,000 households with solar-powered water heaters.
“All this equipment represents about one million square metres of photovoltaic panels installed in residential areas. In return, this has enabled the State to save about 650,000 tonnes of oil equivalent (natural or liquefied gas),” says ANME. This initiative is an integral part of the Programme for the Promotion of Solar Water Heating in the Residential Sector (PROSOL) launched in 2009 in Tunisia.
This programme is the result of cooperation between ANME, the Italian government and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The initiative aims to create a sustainable market for solar thermal applications and to install 200,000 m² of solar thermal collectors in Tunisia, according to Souad Abrougui, director of Prosol.
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Other projects led by local entrepreneurs have also seen the light of day in Tunisia over the past few years in the field of solar energy. This is the case of “Kumulus 1”, a solar-powered water generator. The installation with four filters and intelligent functions was developed by Kumulus Water, a start-up company specialising in water engineering. Since May 2022, this device has been providing drinking water to 570 pupils in Makthar, north-west Tunisia.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi
