MIGA backs €13m guarantee for new 100 MW solar plant in Sidi Bouzid as Tunisia's clean energy build accelerates

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political-risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group, issued a guarantee of up to €13.05 million on Tuesday 1 July to back construction of a new 100 MW grid-connected solar plant in central Tunisia — the agency's fourth solar independent power producer (IPP) project in the country.

The 20-year guarantee runs to Aeolus SAS, a French-registered joint venture between Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation and CFAO SAS, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Japan's Toyota Tsusho Corporation. It covers Aeolus' equity investment in Scatec Khobna PV Power SARL, the special-purpose vehicle established to construct, own and operate the plant.

Site and infrastructure

The plant will be built in the Mezzouna delegation of Sidi Bouzid governorate, roughly 260 km south of Tunis, on a site immediately adjacent to the 60 MW Sidi Bouzid I facility that entered commercial operation in March 2026. The project is rated at 100 MW AC output — or 120 MWp at peak nameplate capacity — and includes a 12-kilometre 225kV overhead transmission line, a bay extension at the STEG Mezzouna 1 substation, and an upgrade of the existing STEG Meknassy substation. All high-voltage infrastructure will be transferred to the Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas (STEG) on commercial operation.

Construction began on 17 June 2026, when developer Scatec ASA (Norway) and Aeolus reached financial close on the €96 million project. Each partner holds a 50 percent stake. Commercial operation is targeted for the second half of 2027.

Financing stack

The project carries approximately 70 percent leverage, financed through non-recourse debt and equity. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are the senior lenders, together providing up to €61.3 million. The European Union is contributing additional support through an EU Neighbourhood Investment Platform grant — directed at the transmission infrastructure — and a guarantee under the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+), which the MIGA press release also references. The MIGA guarantee provides a further layer of political-risk cover for Aeolus' equity position.

Scatec will handle engineering, procurement and construction, as well as asset management and operations and maintenance. The EPC contract accounts for roughly 75 percent of total capital expenditure, according to Scatec.

Off-take and generation

A 25-year power purchase agreement with STEG, signed in March 2025 following a government tender awarded in December 2024, underpins the project's revenue. Scatec projects the plant will generate 276 GWh of electricity per year — the EBRD puts the figure at around 252 GWh, reflecting a more conservative load-factor assumption. Both estimates represent a material addition to Tunisia's renewable output. The plant is expected to cut CO₂ emissions by around 107,000 tonnes annually.

Context: Tunisia's gas dependency and 2030 target

Around 95 percent of Tunisia's electricity today comes from natural gas-fired plants, with more than 60 percent of the gas itself imported. The government has set a target to raise renewables to 35 percent of the national energy mix by 2030, a target that until recently had little large-scale private-sector investment behind it.

MIGA's engagement in Tunisian solar began with the Kairouan project (100 MW, backed by AMEA Power), which reached commercial operation in December 2025. The agency then guaranteed €18.45 million for Aeolus' investments in the Sidi Bouzid I (60 MW) and Tozeur (60 MW) plants in August 2024; those facilities entered operation in March and April 2026 respectively. The new Sidi Bouzid II guarantee is MIGA's fourth solar IPP transaction in the country under a concession programme launched in 2018.

MIGA Managing Director Tsutomu Yamamoto said the project would help Tunisia "increase its energy self-reliance in a sustainable, affordable manner." Aeolus President Hideharu Toba said the project "further demonstrates our shared commitment to supporting Tunisia's energy transition through long-term investment and partnership," following what he described as the successful commissioning of the Sidi Bouzid and Tozeur plants earlier this year.

Scatec is also developing a 120 MW solar plant in Tataouine, for which it was awarded a 25-year PPA in January 2026, signalling continued pipeline growth in the sector.