TUNIS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Tunisia plans to attract 2 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment for wind and solar power projects over the next three years, the Tunisian government said Tuesday.
Tunisian Ministry of Industry and Small and Medium Enterprises said in a statement that the funding would be used to support an additional production capacity of 1900 MW by 2022, representing almost 22 percent of the installed capacity of renewable power in Tunisia.
Tunisia expects an annual 2-5 percent increase of the demand for renewable power, the ministry said.
A German delegation of business leaders operating in the filed of self-supply of solar energy paid a visit to Tunisia from Sept. 23-26, aiming to provide sustainable technologies and intelligent solutions in the field of energy efficiency.
The mission will focus on energy efficiency in industry and will be supervised by the Tunisian-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the ministry said.
Tunisia's energy imports constitute no less than one third of the trade deficit, which rose from 15.6 billion dinars (5.46 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 to 19 billion dinars in 2018.
