France's TotalEnergies wanted 500 hectares of prime Tunisian desert for a solar farm. The deal looked good on paper — clean power, foreign investment, jobs. Locals saw it differently: a foreign company getting a 25-year lease on their land while Tunisians still queue for bread and diesel.
The project is now stuck in court.
A pattern of broken promises
This isn't an isolated fight. Across Tunisia, renewable energy projects — the government's supposed silver bullet for rolling blackouts and soaring import bills — are hitting walls. Not technical walls. Political ones. Social ones.
The 2015 energy transition law was meant to fast-track 4,000 megawatts of solar and wind by 2025. Nine years later, less than 20% is operational. The problem isn't sunlight or wind speed. It's trust.
Tunisians remember the Enfidha airport concession. The phosphate mine sell-offs. Each time, foreign firms arrived with grand promises and left with profits. Locals got low-wage jobs and environmental damage.
"They told us solar farms would bring electricity to our villages," says Mahmoud Ben Ali, a farmer from Tozeur. "Three years later, we still have blackouts. But the foreign engineers have air-conditioned offices."
The subsidy trap
Here's the ugly truth Tunisia's government doesn't want to admit: renewable energy is expensive upfront. Really expensive. The state can't afford the billions needed for panels, turbines, and grid upgrades. So it turns to private investors — mostly European and Gulf companies — who demand long-term contracts with guaranteed prices.
Those prices are higher than what Tunisians currently pay for heavily subsidized fossil fuels. The government says removing subsidies is the only way to make renewables competitive. But try explaining that to a family already struggling with 15% inflation.
In 2024, Tunisia spent $4.2 billion on energy subsidies — nearly 10% of GDP. That's unsustainable. But so is asking citizens to pay market rates while foreign firms reap profits.
Green colonialism or necessary evil?
The term "energy colonialism" gets thrown around a lot in Tunisian media. It's not entirely fair. Countries like the UAE and Germany bring real capital and expertise. Tunisia simply doesn't have the technical capacity to build 4,000 megawatts alone.
But the optics are disastrous. In Tataouine, a Chinese company is building a 200-megawatt solar plant while locals protest for water access. In Kasserine, a Spanish wind farm sits idle for months due to land disputes. Every delayed project reinforces the narrative: foreigners benefit; Tunisians wait.
The government's response? More concessions. In March, Tunisia signed a deal with a French consortium for a 500-megawatt solar park in Douz. The agreement includes a 30% profit-sharing mechanism — a first. Critics call it window dressing.
"The problem isn't the percentage," says energy economist Leila Bouaziz. "It's that the entire model is extractive. We sell our sun and wind cheaply, then buy back electricity at market rates. That's not partnership. That's patronage."
What real reform looks like
There is a way out, but it requires political courage the current government lacks. First, stop treating renewable energy as a quick fix for fiscal problems. It's an infrastructure project that needs patient investment and public buy-in.
Second, give local communities real ownership. Not just jobs — equity stakes. Tunisia's 2015 law allows for community cooperatives, but bureaucracy has choked them. Less than 2% of renewable projects involve local ownership.
Third, fix the grid. Tunisia loses 18% of its electricity to transmission inefficiency. Adding more generation won't help if the grid can't handle it. That means transparent procurement and domestic manufacturing capacity.
Fourth — and this is the hard one — phase out subsidies in a way that doesn't crush the poor. The IMF wants immediate cuts. Civil society wants none. The middle ground is a gradual, targeted approach: direct cash transfers to vulnerable households while prices rise for industrial users.
The clock is ticking
Tunisia imports 95% of its natural gas. That's a geopolitical and economic vulnerability. In 2025, gas prices spiked again, adding $1.2 billion to the import bill. Renewable energy isn't a luxury. It's survival.
But survival requires more than signing deals with foreign companies. It requires a social contract that makes Tunisians feel like partners — not bystanders in their own energy transition.
The Douz solar farm will probably get built, eventually. The courts will rule, the protests will fade, and the panels will go up. But if the process leaves behind the same bitterness as past concessions, Tunisia won't solve its energy crisis. It will simply replace one dependency with another.
And that's not a revolution. That's just another deal.
