By Gokhan Kurtaran and Zeynep Beyza Karabay
LONDON
In a few years, people in Europe may be turning on their light bulbs courtesy of the Tunisian sun.
A project to bring solar energy from the north African country of Tunisia to generate electricity for Europe is ambitious and important, according to the head of London-based Nur Energie, a solar power plant developer. The company wants to develop a 2,000 megawatt solar export project between Tunisia and Europe.
"We have been developing the project for the past four years and have made significant investment," Kevin Sara, CEO of Nur Energie, told The Anadolu Agency.
"The project is at an advanced level of development," he said.
The company aims to lay an electric cable from Tunisia to Italy and sell the electricity produced in Tunisia to customers in Europe, according to the company website.
"There is already a gas pipeline from Tunisia to Italy, and an electrical cable is a lot easier to build than a gas pipeline," Sara said. "It’s absolutely doable."
Overall, the project is planned to cost €10 billion, about $12.7 billion, over several years, he said.
"These types of projects around the world are financed by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank and we have been in discussion with all of them," Sara said.
The Tunisian parliament recently passed a law that would pave the way for the project to go ahead, and the permitting is underway, according to Sara.
Before the law was passed, electricity generation and transmission were monopolized, he said.
Construction of the project is planned to begin in 2016, and last two years. When it is complete it is expected to transfer energy to over 2 million European homes, Sara said.
"We are also discussing this project with other countries such as Germany and Switzerland," he said.
"We are cheaper than nuclear energy or offshore wind," Sara said. "Now we are more expensive than fossil fuels but the only reason is that fossil fuel plants are polluting the environment without paying for it."
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