TUNIS (TAP) - Tunisia will produce 244 Megawatts (MW) from wind energy in 2012, with the start of production next year of the 190-MW wind power plant of Bizerte.

This is the conclusion of the international workshop held on Tuesday in Tunis on "opportunities for developing wind power in Tunisia."

According to Mr. Ayadi Ben Aissa, former CEO of the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company (STEG), production of power through wind energy will not exceed 300 MW in 2012, i.e. 5% of power production in the country, seeing that STEG in its current structure cannot absorb a capacity higher to this upper limit.

Yet, wind energy production capacity in Tunisia can reach 8 thousand MW, if wind power plants are built nationwide, he said.

He added that financing opportunities are available internationally to encourage production of power through wind energy.

Tunisia has now only one wind power plant in Sidi Daoud (Houaria) with a production capacity of 54 MW.