PROSOL Residential

Launched in 2005, PROSOL is a joint effort of the Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Energy and Small and Middle Size Enterprises; the National Agency for Energy Conservation of Tunisia; and the United Nations Environment Program. PROSOL also received financial backing from the Italian-led Mediterranean Renewable Energy Program.

The PROSOL aimed to highlight specific constraints along the solar water heaters (SWHs) technology continuum, particularly those that were preventing this mature technology from reaching market independence.

Designed for the Tunisian residential sector, Prosol encompassed multiple interrelated measures that provided households with incentives to purchase SWHs, drew-in private investors by reallocating investment risks and drove reforms in the energy subsidy framework.

Project in numbers

Start date : 2005

Goals

Adjust the competitive playing ﬁeld, by oﬀering subsidies for SWHs to help compensate subsidies on fossil fuel-based water heating alternatives;
Boost both the demand and the supply of the SWH market, by raising consumers’ awareness and building confidence in the technology, training installers, creating accreditation and quality certiﬁcation programs as well as developing an after-sales maintenance network;
Overcome the absence of consumer credit for renewable energy investments by involving the state utility to act as debt collector, guarantor and enforcer.

Tunisia benefits from very good sunlight and this led the Tunisian government to promote renewable energies and work towards accomplishing a long-lasting goal, which is to bring the households to opt for low carbon technologies for heating water and therefore protecting the environment.

As part of the implementation of its renewable energy development strategy, the Tunisian government has decided to launch a program developping Solar Water Heating in the residential sector, namely The PROSOL Residential, built on the basis of two previous initiatives that have failed to address speciﬁc issues of the SWH market in the long term.

The program was launched in 2005, at the initiative of the Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Energy and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises; the National Agency for Energy Conservation (ANME) with the technical support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); the Italian-led Mediterranean Renewable Energy Program (MEDREP) and the Mediterranean Renewable Energy Centre (MEDREC). It aims to reach a total installed area of 750,000 m² by 2014 and 1 million m² by 2016 (Tunisian Solar Plan: PST)