Libya
Branches in Benghazi and Tripoli supplying construction materials, machinery, vehicles and general goods, with most cargo consolidated out of Turkish ports.
The office
Where we sit, what we do from here, and who you are dealing with.
- OfficesBenghazi and Tripoli
- RoleBranch office
- CoversBenghazi, Tripoli and the wider Libyan market
- Handled hereClearance follow-up, local delivery and client contact
What moves through here
The categories we handle most often in this market. The full licence covers more.
Construction and building materials
Machinery and equipment
Food supply
Vehicles and spare parts
Electrical goods
General trade goods
How we work here
Three things that decide whether an order lands on time.
Consolidated out of Türkiye
Most orders are gathered and consolidated at Turkish ports. It keeps freight cost down and keeps the paperwork in one set instead of five.
Documentation prepared before the cargo sails
A document problem costs far less at a desk in Istanbul than it does at a port in Libya, so the paperwork is finished first.
Followed locally
Clearance and delivery are followed by our own people in Benghazi rather than handed to a freight agent and hoped for.
Libya Renewable Energy Review
Q3 2026. What one turbine, one megawatt of modules, one electrolyser and one battery container cost delivered into Libya — and what each of them produces here.
Capital in, electrons out
Across all four technologies the physics is close to origin-neutral: a megawatt-hour from a Chinese turbine on the Derna ridge is indistinguishable from one produced by a Danish turbine on the same ridge. What differs — by a factor approaching two — is the capital required. In Libya that gap matters more than anywhere else in the region, because the counterfactual is not a market electricity price. It is a heavily subsidised tariff, a fuel-constrained gas fleet and, at the margin, diesel.
Libya as it actually is
Not as the maps suggest. Four numbers that decide whether a renewable project here is a business or a press release.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Renewable share of final energy consumption, 2021 (IEA) | 0.01 % |
| Peak generation reached for the first time in 2026, against demand that still forces summer load shedding | 8.2 GW |
| Share of the population with grid access, 2022 — roughly 200 remote villages sit more than 25 km from any line | 70 % |
| Residential tariff per kilowatt-hour. Solar does not compete against this number, and should not try | $0.008 |
The announced pipeline
| Project | Sponsor | Capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Al-Sadada solar, 280 km SE of Tripoli | TotalEnergies / GECOL | 500 MW |
| Eastern Libya solar | PowerChina / EDF | 1,500 MW |
| Ghadames solar, 500 ha, permitting | AG Energy / GECOL PPA | 200 MW |
| Two further solar plants | Alpha Dhabi Holding | 2,000 MW |
| Maqroon and Derna wind, REAoL plan | REAoL / GECOL | ≈ 1,000 MW |
Sources: IEA, GECOL and REAoL announcements, pv magazine, PVKnowHow / J.v.G. Technology country report. Announced capacity is not contracted capacity — most of the above remains at permitting or framework-agreement stage.
What renewable power actually competes against
Retail power in Libya is administered, not traded. A merchant solar business case fails here; a GECOL tender, a captive industrial load or a fuel-displacement contract does not.
USD per MWh
$220 / MWh is the cost of the diesel and heavy-fuel backup generation that fills the gap during load shedding. That is the number solar and storage actually beat. Every cubic metre of gas burned domestically is one not exported through Greenstream — priced at export parity, gas-fired generation is three times the cost of Eastern-sourced solar.
How to read every comparison
Four rules held constant across all four technologies, so the numbers can be compared with each other.
The unitEach section prices one physical unit: a 6 MW onshore turbine, 1 MWdc of modules, a 1 MW electrolyser, a 5 MWh battery container. Ex-works and delivered-installed are always shown separately.
The siteTwo Libyan reference sites, held constant. Solar: the Sirte basin at roughly 2,200 kWh/m² annual GHI and 2,045 kWh/kWp tracked yield. Wind: a Derna-class coastal ridge at 7.5 m/s, 120 m hub.
The Libya adderEvery delivered price carries an explicit 18% premium over Gulf benchmarks for security, war-risk insurance, mobilisation, demurrage at Misrata or Mellitah, and payment terms. It is shown as its own line, never buried.
The origins“Western” means North American or European OEMs. “Eastern” means China, India, Türkiye and Gulf assembly. Türkiye is treated as a distinct middle tier — closest port, no Western premium.
USD, indicative Q3 2026. 7% WACC for wind, solar and storage; 8% for hydrogen. 25-year life for wind, 30 for solar, 20 for electrolysers and batteries. Planning-grade only — not a binding offer.
01 · Wind
One 6 MW onshore machine, 120 m hub, on a Derna-class coastal ridge — the best wind resource in the country, and the one REAoL has already zoned.
Capital cost per kilowatt of rated capacity, USD/kW
Installed figures include foundation, tower, crane mobilisation, internal grid, commissioning and the 18% Libya adder. Chinese domestic clearing prices, near $300/kW, are not achievable on export terms.
| One 6 MW unit | NAM / EU OEM | ME / Asia / TR |
|---|---|---|
| Ex-works, one unit | $6.0 m | $2.7 m |
| Installed in Libya | $11.3 m | $6.7 m |
| Net annual energy | 21,000 MWh | 20,400 MWh |
| Availability warranty | 97 – 98 % | 95 – 97 % |
| Capex per annual MWh | $540 | $330 |
| Indicative LCOE | $62 / MWh | $41 / MWh |
Net annual energy from one 6 MW unit, MWh per year
Derna reports an annual mean wind speed of 7.8 m/s — the strongest measured resource on the Libyan coast and roughly double the energy of the weakest site. Site selection moves annual yield twice as far as OEM selection does. On a 60 MW farm at Derna the two supply chains differ by roughly $46 million in capital and about 6 GWh a year in output. Only one of those numbers changes the investment case.
02 · Solar
One megawatt of modules and the steel that moves them, landed at Misrata. Libya’s resource is world-class; its module price is whatever its supply chain decides.
Tier-1 bifacial TOPCon modules, USD per watt, Q3 2026, before the Libya adder
One 580 W module is $174 US-assembled, $87 from Türkiye — two days’ sailing to Misrata — and $75 FOB China. Single-axis tracker hardware follows the same shape: $0.120/W US or EU, $0.075/W Türkiye, $0.050/W China.
| A 100 MWdc tracked bifacial plant, Sirte basin | Western | Eastern |
|---|---|---|
| Total EPC cost | $80.8 m | $46.6 m |
| Cost per kWdc | $808 | $466 |
| Year-one yield | 205 GWh | 203 GWh |
| Tracker uplift | +22 % | +22 % |
| Indicative LCOE | $37 / MWh | $22 / MWh |
$34 million released — enough to fund a further 73 MWdc on the Eastern cost base. A 73% capacity increase for the same cheque.
Annual specific yield, single-axis tracked bifacial, kWh per kWp
95% more energy from the same module in southern Libya than in northern Germany, before a single procurement decision is made. The announced 500 MW Al-Sadada plant should produce roughly 1,020 GWh a year on this yield — about 3% of national generation from one project. Budget an 8% summer thermal derate and 2–4% soiling; even after both, this is the strongest solar case in the Mediterranean.
03 · Hydrogen
Grey, blue and green — and the electrolyser that separates them. The largest capital gap of the four technologies, and the one where Libyan geography counts for most.
| Production route | 2026 range, USD per kg | CO₂ per kg H₂ |
|---|---|---|
| Grey — steam methane reforming, vented | $1.00 – $2.10 | 9 – 11 kg |
| Blue — reforming with carbon capture | $1.80 – $4.70 | 1 – 3 kg |
| Green — electrolysis on renewable power | $3.00 – $7.60 | Near zero, if genuinely additional |
Levelised cost of hydrogen, USD per kg · 1 MW nominal, 60% utilisation, $25/MWh power, installed in Libya
Western PEM converts power to hydrogen about 6% more efficiently. At $25/MWh that saving is worth roughly $0.08/kg — against a capex penalty of $1.71/kg once landed in Libya.
| 1 MW electrolyser | Western PEM | Western ALK | Asian ALK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Installed in Libya | $3,010/kW | $2,714/kW | $1,239/kW |
| Specific energy | 52 kWh/kg | 55 kWh/kg | 55 kWh/kg |
| Output at 60% load | 101,100 kg/yr | 95,600 kg/yr | 95,600 kg/yr |
| Stack life | 80,000 h | 90,000 h | 60–70,000 h |
Libya’s advantage is 520 kilometres of pipe
Greenstream runs subsea from Mellitah to Gela in Sicily, owned 50-50 by Eni and the NOC, and was built for 11 bcm a year.
- Gulf producers ship ammonia and lose $0.40–$0.80/kg doing it. Libya has a direct physical link to the Italian grid.
- Flows have fallen from roughly 700 MMscfd in 2015 to under 100 MMscfd in 2025 — spare export capacity looking for a molecule.
- Depleted Sirte basin reservoirs are the most credible underground hydrogen storage candidates in North Africa, with Ghadames a secondary option.
- The honest caveat: the Southern Hydrogen Corridor declaration signed in Rome covers Germany, Algeria, Italy, Austria and Tunisia. Libya is not a party to it. Treat repurposing Greenstream as a 2030s option, not a current pipeline.
SUROOH’s recommended exposure: trade the equipment and the EPC package, not the merchant molecule — margin without twenty years of hydrogen price risk.
04 · Battery energy storage
One 5 MWh container, and the hundred-megawatt-hour system it belongs to. In Libya this is not an arbitrage play — it is the answer to load shedding.
Cost of firm evening power, USD per MWh · 100 MWh four-hour system, one cycle per day, 88% round-trip, 7% WACC, 20-year life
Turnkey capital for a 100 MWh four-hour system on Eastern equipment, installed in Libya, is $14.8 m — against $28.3 m for Western kit. Three times cheaper than the diesel and heavy-fuel generation that currently fills the evening peak. That, not the retail tariff, is the benchmark that matters. Roughly 200 villages sit more than 25 km from the grid, where households still buy kerosene at about 13% of monthly spend; container-scale storage is the entry product there.
| 5 MWh liquid-cooled LFP container | US / EU built | Asia built |
|---|---|---|
| LFP cell, factory gate | $85 – 95/kWh | ≈ $40/kWh |
| DC block, 5 MWh unit | $1.15 m | $0.63 m |
| DC cost per kWh | $230 | $125 |
| Turnkey in Libya, per kWh | $283 | $148 |
| Round-trip efficiency | 88 – 90 % | 87 – 89 % |
Round-trip efficiency is effectively identical across origins. Storage is the purest capital comparison in this review.
Four technologies, one pattern
Western sourcing indexed to Middle East / Asia sourcing = 100, both delivered into Libya.
Capital cost against energy output
Capital cost varies by 68 to 143 percent across origins. Energy output varies by 6 percent — and in hydrogen the Western unit is the more productive one. The gap is widest where the technology is least mature and the supply chain least contested. Western subsidy closes the gap only inside the jurisdiction granting it; for Libya it is noise.
What the 18% adder is actually paying for
The adder is an estimate, not a quotation. On a live tender it should be rebuilt line by line from freight quotes, insurance terms and the specific offtake counterparty.
Procurement routeREAoL was established under Law No. 426 of 2007; government contracting runs through Administrative Contracts Regulation 563/2007 and CoM Decree 12/2023. GECOL is the offtaker for every announced solar project. There is no merchant route to market.
Payment and currencyDinar exposure, letter-of-credit availability and GECOL payment history are the three items that decide whether a project is financeable. Price them explicitly; do not treat them as contingency.
Logistics and securityMisrata and Mellitah are the practical entry points. Budget demurrage, escorted inland transport and war-risk insurance. Türkiye’s freight advantage over China is worth roughly a week and a container rate.
Grid and interconnectionA grid that still load-sheds cannot absorb unmanaged intermittency. Every renewable package we quote carries a storage or curtailment answer alongside it, or it fails technical review.
How we convert the spread into margin
What we sell is not the discount. It is the confidence to take it.
Origin arbitrageTender every package to both supply chains against one Libyan site model, so GECOL or the private offtaker sees the true delta rather than a marketing claim.
Bankability wrapThird-party warranty, performance guarantees and a spares depot at Benghazi or Misrata that lift Eastern equipment to a standard lenders and REAoL will accept.
The Türkiye bridgeTurkish assembly carries neither the Western premium nor the origin-risk discount, and is two days’ sailing from Misrata. The natural middle route for any EU-facing or ECA-financed Libyan project.
Lifecycle economicsPrice stack replacement, degradation, soiling and the 8% summer thermal derate into the offer, so the cheaper unit is also the cheaper asset over twenty years.
Libya Renewable Energy Review — Q3 2026
The full 30-page review: wind, solar, hydrogen and battery storage, with every figure, chart and source. Planning-grade and indicative; binding pricing is site-specific and issued only against a completed technical specification.
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