Africa, on energy and food projects involving the South
New Frontiers. Terna has called for tenders to select suppliers to build an EU 850 million power line between Tunisia and Sicily; Interconnector companies are ready to invest in renewables
by Vera Viola
3' min read
3' min read
The first major interventions for Africa in the pipeline directly and indirectly involve territories and businesses in southern Italy. Although the Mattei Plan, announced since October 2022 and considered one of the pillars of government action, has so far produced very little.
The first project on the starting line concerns the Elmed interconnection that will be built by Terna and Steg, the Tunisian grid operator. "After obtaining the authorisation decree," says Terna, "preliminary activities are being carried out on Italian territory, such as preventive archaeology, while tenders are underway to award contracts for the supply of cables and stations. The project enjoys a contribution of EUR 307 million from the EU, and it is the first case in which funding has been granted to a project in which one of the countries involved is not a member of the European Union.
It is a 220-kilometre long power line, most of it in submarine cable, to a maximum depth of about 800 metres along the Strait of Sicily, requiring an investment of about EUR 850 million. On the Italian side, the overland cable will run for 18 kilometres from the landing in Castelvetrano (Trapani) to the conversion station that will be built in Partanna (Trapani). In Tunisia, the electrical station will be built in Mlaabi, on the Cape Bon peninsula. In the meantime, the companies gathered in Interconnector (a consortium company) are already mobilised, which, according to Law 99/2009 Article 32, can participate in the financing of one or more upgrades of interconnection infrastructures with foreign countries. These companies could allocate 100 million to the work.
The same Interconnector companies are ready to invest an equal amount in another project that aims to install renewable energy plants in Tunisia. Negotiations have begun with the Tunisian embassy in Italy: it is thought that part of the energy produced will be sold to the Tunisian government and part transported to Italy. Again, southern Italy could become the landing place for the energy produced.
Another important project of the Mattei Plan is the one assigned to the company Bonifiche Ferraresi and which is expected to find a lot of cooperation in the southern area. The agreement, signed on 6 July, requires the Italian company to invest in regenerating 36,000 hectares of land in Algeria and, starting this year, to dig wells and sow seeds in order to increase Algerian production. The value of the operation is 420 million.
