MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Tunisia is strongly determined to win the right to export solar energy to the UK, which could allow the country to provide power for almost 2.5 million British homes by 2018, TuNur, a joint venture between Tunisian and British investors said Monday.
According to the BBC, TuNur, which aims to develop the first solar export project between Tunisia and Europe, also announced that its power supplies would be 20 percent cheaper than home-grown sources.
Kevin Sara, the company's chief executive, stated that TuNur had already spent 10 million euros (almost $13 million) developing a site in the south of Tunisia.
"We are working with some of the largest engineering firms in the world. This is a serious project. Yes, it is risky like any big energy project is risky," Sara told the BBC Monday. "But there is nothing new about moving energy from North Africa to Europe."
TuNur is currently hoping to win the British Contract for Difference for non-UK Renewable Electricity Projects launched in August with a view to "incentivize the development of new renewable electricity projects connected to the electricity systems of Great Britain but located outside the UK."
Under the terms of the contract, the seller should pay the buyer the difference between the value at the moment of purchase and the value at the time of the contract being signed. This is different from the existing Renewables Obligation prescribing suppliers to "source a specified proportion of the electricity they provide to customers from eligible renewable sources".
