Algeria reboots renewables sector

A 1GW solar auction and commitments by Eni to develop clean hydrogen have given the sector fresh momentum after years of stalled progress

A flurry of activity at the end of 2021 saved it from being another year of disappointment for Algeria’s underdeveloped clean energy sector. Late December saw the government make good on 18 months of promises to hold a second solar auction with a tender from the newly created Algerian Renewable Energy Company (Shaems) to install 1GW of PV across the inland north. Two weeks earlier, Italy’s Eni, the main foreign player in the country’s upstream oil and gas industry, committed to partner government-owned Sonatrach in the development of clean hydrogen and other elements of the decarbonised energy value chain. Algeria has no shortage of conventional energy resources, possessing some of the world