Cabo Verde wants solar parks on four islands within two years

The Cape Verdean government has opened a tender to build and put into operation by June 2025 solar plants on four islands, totaling nearly 3.5 MegaWatts (MW), a project co-financed by the World Bank.

According to the tender notice launched by the Special Projects Management Unit (UGPE) of the Government of Cape Verde, consulted today by Lusa, the construction and operation of solar parks on the islands of Fogo (1.3 MW), Santo Antão (1.2 MW), São Nicolau (0.4 MW) and Maio (0.4 MW) are at stake.

The tender – with a deadline for the presentation of proposals on March 30th – foresees the selection of the winning companies until next May, the beginning of the construction of the plants by August, and their commissioning in June 2025.

In Praia, this project was publicly presented on March 28, 2022, foreseeing installing these solar plants in four islands, in an overall investment of US$16.5 million co-financed by the World Bank.

The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Improvement in Public Services Project foresees, in the renewable and efficient electricity service component, valued at US$12.5 million, the construction of solar photovoltaic plants on the islands of Santo Antão, Porto Novo (1.2 MW), São Nicolau, Ribeira Brava (0.4 MW), Maio, Barreiro (0.4 MW) and Fogo, Santa Catarina (1.3 MW).

According to the presentation of the project made at the time by the Government, after the construction of the photovoltaic plants, the executive intends to “adjudicate their exploration to private parties”.

It also involves the construction of infrastructures to interconnect these plants to the public grid and installing batteries to ensure the storage of energy produced as a “pilot project”.

According to the Minister of Energy, Alexandre Monteiro, in addition to these four plants, there are five other renewable energy production processes, solar and wind, underway, to which “more than 20 companies” have competed, in a process that, he said, has been conditioned by the covid-19 pandemic in its execution.

Still, he assured that these projects would allow Cape Verde to reach the goals of energy production through renewable sources, given the current dependence on fossil fuels, which feed more than 80% of the electricity produced in the country’s power plants, affected by the escalating price of oil products on the international market.

“It is a very important project to support the country in the execution of its energy transition program,” said the minister, also highlighting the “very strong” component at the level of “reform and reorganization” of the energy market in Cape Verde with this project, co-financed by the World Bank Group and the Cape Verdean state, among other partners.

The plan approved by the Cape Verdean government foresees a 30% electricity production target through renewable sources by 2025 and more than 50% by 2030.

The project also aims to “improve the performance of the electricity sector in Cape Verde,” leveraging private financing for this purpose and providing support for the restructuring and privatization of the public electricity generation company Electra, planned for this year.

“Cape Verde started its energy transition program before the pandemic. The crises show that the country is on the right path, which is to move towards an energy sector progressively less dependent on fossil fuels,” the Energy Minister also said.

Fully dependent on the import of fossil fuels and without refining capacity in the country, the World Bank states that Cape Verde is one of the countries with the highest electricity tariffs in sub-Saharan Africa, which suffered an average increase of about 30% in October.

Still, the government expects that consumer prices will fall with the progressive increase in the installed capacity of renewable energy.

With information from Sapo

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