The announcement came at the opening of a seminar organized by the El Manar Rotary club at the Tunis Planetarium. The feasibility of a pilot project called Soleil de Nefta, aimed at generalizing the use of solar energy in the 25,000- inhabitant southern town, as well as using solar power for the pumping of water for its 500,000 tree palm grove, was discussed in the seminar.
Abdelaziz Rassaa, the secretary of state in charge of renewable energies and food industries, in Tunis reminded participants thatthe country has doubled its solar energy capacity in 2008; noting that the country’s solar energy capacity increased from 8,000 square meters of solar panels in 2004 to 80,000 square meters in 2008.
Rassaa further said that the aim of the next four year plan was to reach global energy savings of 2 million tons of petrol equivalent in 2011 and to boost the use of renewable energies from 12% in 2007 to 16% in 2020.
