Libya's General Electric Company (Gecol), a state-owned utility, plans to partner with French energy giant TotalEnergies to build a 500-megawatt solar park in the Sadada region, 280 kilometers southeast of Tripoli.
Gecol said: “This project is part of a framework agreement we signed with the Libyan Renewable Energy Agency to implement a strategic plan to integrate more renewable energy capacity into the country’s grid, but without providing any additional financial or technical details.”
The utility currently operates about 9 gigawatts of power generation assets, including 16 gas and oil plants. Renewable energy accounts for only about 2% of its total electricity supply. Libya has only 6 MW of installed PV capacity, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
In its 2013-25 Renewable Energy Strategic Plan, the Libyan government set targets of 300 MW by 2020 and 450 MW by 2025. It also set targets for building 150 MW of concentrated solar power by 2020 and 800 MW by 2025.
Libya has an average daily solar radiation level of about 7.1 kWh/m2/day on the horizontal plane, with more than 3,500 hours of sunshine per year. A recent U.S. Department of Energy Berkeley Lab study, “Strategic Siting and Regional Grid Interconnection Critical to African Countries’ Low-Carbon Futures,” suggests Libya and other African countries should prioritize solar projects because they are home to solar projects .
