Huffington Post 28.1.2012 In the desert of Southern Tunisia, a group of renewable energy entrepreneurs, NUR Energie Ltd, and their Tunisian joint venture partner, Top Oilfield Services, are creating what may just be the most ambitious solar power renewable energy project to date. Along with the endorsement of the Desertec Foundation, NUR Energie has launched the TuNur project to export solar energy from North Africa to Europe, linking Tunisia to Italy via a High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Cable and into the Italian electricity grid in order to supply a constant 2,000 MW of electricity. When completed, TuNur is set to be the world's largest solar energy project.
Spiegel Online By Nicolai Kwasniewski, April 03, 2013 Mansour Cherni is one of the people who don't fit into this image of a densely populated Europe powered by sunlight from the largely deserted Sahara. The Tunisian trade unionist attended the World Social Forum 2013 (WSF), a five-day event held in Tunis in late March. "Where will the energy produced here be used?" he asked. "Where will the water come from that will cool the solar power plants? And what do the locals get from it all?"