TUNISIA / WIND FARMS

Tunisia has a population of ten million which is not enough buying power to keep the country's many businesses prosperous. The government is making up for the shortfall locally, by helping the country's entrepreneurs find markets abroad. WORLD BANK

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:26
• Production Date: 20 October 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; NATURAL RESOURCES; ENVIRONMENT; ECOSYSTEMS
• Geographic Subject: TUNISIA
• MAMS Id: U101020g

Description

STORY: TUNISIA / WIND FARMS
TRT: 1:26
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: FRENCH / NATS

DATELINE: JUNE 2010, SIDI DAOUD, TUNISIA

Shotlist

1. Various shots, wind farm turbines
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Noura Laroussi, Director General, National Agency for Energy:
“Energy is important for us, especially since we are not a producer, so when we had a deficit in 2000, we seriously begun thinking about sources of energy, including renewable energy.”
3. Various shots, wind farm turbines
4. Zoom out, farmland with turbines in background
5. Close-up, Ounalli working
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Amor Ounalli, Director, Renewable Energies, National Agency for Energy:
“We can look and know the speed of a particular wind, the height, ten, 60, 80 or 100 meters, and then the developers can study this and use this to develop wind energy here.”
7. Med shot, Mejri with colleague
8. SOUNDBITE (French) Mohieddine Mejri, Director of Project, Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas:
“We are having technical exchanges on wind with our colleagues in Libya, Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco to see how we can profit best from these energies.”
9. Zoom out, turbines

Storyline

Tunisia is capturing its strong winds and turning them into energy, here at the Sidi Daoud wind farm, on the country’s northern coast. It’s the first of its kind in the North African nation.

Head of the National Agency for Energy Noura Laroussi said that since experiencing a deficit in 2000, the country has “seriously begun thinking about sources of energy, including renewable energy.”

Sidi Daoud’s 26 wind turbines will produce 95,000 megawatt hours of electricity a year, replacing electricity normally generated from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

The project will prevent annual emissions of about 50,000 metric tons of dangerous greenhouse gases-the equivalent of taking ten thousand cars off the road.

The wind farm is located on Tunisia’s northern coast of Cap Bon to capitalize on the strong winds coming in from the Mediterranean.

Spain finances the project that generates both electricity and carbon credits. With the help of the World Bank's Spanish Carbon Fund, the carbon credits are purchased by the Government of Spain and companies back in Europe which need them in order to comply with the Kyoto Protocol.

With the effects of climate change felt around the world, Tunisia's contribution to replacing fossil fuels with clean energy is a step in the right direction-one the country is sharing with others.

Mohieddine Mejri from the Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas said that experts are “having technical exchanges on wind with our colleagues in Libya, Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco to see how we can profit best from these energies.”

The exchanges are aimed at increasing wind and other renewable energies at home in Tunisia and in neighboring countries endowed with the same natural resources.