By: OrePulse

Algeria's largest solar power plant, a 300-megawatt-peak photovoltaic facility known as Al-Fouliya, has entered commercial service in the Guemar commune of El Oued Province, officials said. Energy and Renewable Energy Minister Mourad Adjal inaugurated the plant on Monday, October 26, 2026, during a working visit accompanied by El Oued Wali Larbi Bahloul.

Al-Fouliya is the third utility-scale solar plant to come online in Algeria this year, following a 200-megawatt plant at Tendla in Ghardaïa Province and a 200-megawatt plant at Ghrous in Biskra Province. Together, the three plants represent roughly 700 megawatts-peak of new solar capacity added to the national grid in 2026.

The plant forms part of the first phase of Algeria's national solar development program, which calls for 21 photovoltaic plants with a combined capacity of 3,200 megawatts spread across 14 provinces. The government has set a longer-term target of 15,000 megawatts of renewable generating capacity by 2035.

The minister said 760 megawatts-peak of capacity under the program had entered service to date, with the remaining plants scheduled for completion in 2027 [uncertain: this figure differs from the roughly 700 megawatts-peak total attributed to the three named plants]. A specialized industry database cited in connection with the program put expected solar completions for 2027 at about 2,440 megawatts-peak.

Officials linked the expansion to electricity demand recorded over the summer of 2026, when peak consumption reached 21,828 megawatts against a national generation capacity of 28,024 megawatts. Algeria's power generation has historically relied heavily on natural gas, and officials said the new solar capacity is intended to diversify the electricity mix, reduce gas consumption at conventional power plants, and ease pressure on thermal generation during daylight hours, alongside planned upgrades to the transmission grid.

No company was named in the announcement as the plant's builder, operator or financier, and no project cost was disclosed. El Oued Province, in the northeastern Sahara near Algeria's border with Tunisia, is among the 14 provinces included in the first phase of the solar program.

At 300 megawatts-peak, Al-Fouliya is larger than either of the two solar plants that preceded it this year, making it the single biggest solar facility commissioned in Algeria to date. Its inauguration brings the three 2026 plants in Ghardaïa, Biskra and El Oued provinces closer to the 3,200-megawatt target set for the first phase of the national program, though the bulk of that capacity remains under construction or in planning, according to the figures officials cited.

The government has framed the solar rollout, together with grid upgrades, as central to meeting rising summer demand without expanding gas-fired generation further, officials said. With Al-Fouliya now in service, El Oued joins Ghardaïa and Biskra as the three provinces hosting Algeria's first utility-scale solar plants of 2026, ahead of further plants planned under the program's remaining capacity for 2027.