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EGEB: Tunisia launches bid for a 500 MW project, Australia to meet its easy renewable energy target, landfill converted into solar farm

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today on EGEB, the Tunisian government opens bidding for 5 new plants using photovoltaic technology. Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator announced that the government’s unambitious renewable energy target will be met by 2020. The town of Islip on Long Island want to valorize precious space wasted by a landfill by turning it into a solar farm.

Pre-application phase begins for a new Tunisian 500 MW solar project. The Tunisian Ministry of Mines and Energy wants new solar energy plants built on BOO model (Build, Own, Operate). Five facilities are projected:

Through the new tender, the Tunisian government hopes to build a 200 MW solar plant in the province of Tatouine, in the Sahara Desert, two 100 MW PV facilities in the provinces of Kaiouran and Gafsca, and two more 50 MW solar parks in the provinces of Sidi Bouzid and Tozeur.

A 500 MW wind power counterpart is also in the works. Tunisia aims to produce 4,7 GW of clean energy by 2030.

Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator proclaim the country’s clean energy objective will be accomplished, a mere additional 7627 MW. In the country where coal is king and that has the worst per-capita CO2 production in the world, a small green energy advance will dent this record. All necessary renewable energy capacity to reach this goal has been announced as this published graph shows:

 

Coal still accounts for more than 50% of Australia’s energy production, followed by natural gas, which fulfills less than 20% of the country’s needs. With this said, there are several important efforts to bring more solar power on the energy market.

A Long Island town will transform its capped landfill into a solar farm. Islip authorities gave a 9 million contract to Agilitas, a Massachusetts-based solar energy company to install solar panels on top of the grass-covered landfill, shielded by a plastic sheet years ago for environmental reasons. Local residents will be the first beneficiaries as:

The solar arrays are expected to produce enough energy to power 2,500 homes a year from atop capped landfills in Hauppauge and Holbrook.

Solar farms are one of the sole and greenest ways to repurpose land lost to waste disposal.

Featured image is from the Department of Energy SunShot program. View of the Ivanpah Heliostats and Towers taken on April 24, 2014. Photo by Cliff Ho.

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