Tunisia's initial floating solar station starts to operate

• In Tunisia, the first floating solar station on a lake alongside a Tunis industrial park has started to operate.

The assumption is that the 200-kilowatt project from a French renewables company, Qair, can be a prototype for larger projects nationwide.

"When we began at the time, it was the initial project in Africa for a floating solar power plant, i.e. in the water. The originality of this project indicates we can make use of water as opposed to occupying land that can be utilized for various other things like farming or houses", said Omar Bey, exec for the French-based renewables team Qair.

Making use of floating photovoltaic panels aids to preserve water resources whilst making the panels much more energy effective.

"Floating solar panels first of all enable the reduction of water dissipation when they are set up on a water body. So this evaporation of water in nations like Tunisia, Which is water-stressed, certainly permits the dams to keep more water reserves", wrapped up the exec.

In 2015 Tunisia collection ambitious targets for renewables yet last year eco-friendly resources accounted for just 2.8 percent of the country's energy mix and the rest originated from gas.

"We're blessed with a lot of sunshine in Tunisia, and it's not such as in various other places such as the Gulf, the solar panels have the qualities and also the sunshine is good, and also we can exploit it, so why not let everybody set up solar panels? The field is establishing and will keep on doing so", claimed Hassen Amiri, manager of Sater Solar power company.

Tunisia's neighbor, Morocco, is leading in the region. The country currently produces around a fifth of its electricity from clean sources.