World Bank is funding a project that provides for the construction of four PV power plants in Cape Verde

The World Bank will finance the Project on Renewable Energy and Improvement of Energy Efficiency in Public Services, in the amount of 16.5 million USD, with the aim of increasing the production of renewable energy and improving the performance of the public electricity service in Cape Verde , leveraging private financing.

This project provides for technical assistance for the Restructuring and Privatization of the Electricity Sector, namely, the restructuring and privatization of the ELECTRA Sector, with the main objective of reducing the tax burden of the energy sector on the public sector and reducing system losses through better management.

A restructuring that, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Business Development, Olavo Correia, “is urgent and urgent”.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the Government assumed, as a political commitment, the implementation of the energy market reform, with the implementation of the “new design” of the organizational structure of the electricity sector in line with the privatization agenda.

The company's reform process aims to implement a new organizational model for the electricity sector, with a view to significantly improving operational efficiency and service quality and combating commercial losses, while creating favourable conditions for the integration of independent producers of renewable energy and energy storage services in line with the provisions of the Master Plan for the Electricity Sector.

On the other hand, the project foresees the installation of four PV power plants in the country, in São Nicolau, Santo Antão, Maio and Fogo, while infrastructures will be built for the interconnection of these plants to the public grid, as well as the installation of energy storage systems.

The Deputy Prime Minister announced that, as part of the new planning exercise that will shape the new Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development (PEDSII), the National Program for Energy Sustainability will also be analysed and reinforced.

Cape Verde, as a small island developing state, “must bet on endogenous resources to undertake the changes that the country needs to successfully face in the near future”.

In this sense, Olavo Correia argues that the country “has to be able to use digital and be a sustainable country, which increasingly bets on renewable energy and renewable energies”.

The Minister of Finance and Business Development stressed that Cape Verde is betting on electric mobility, with ambitious goals for 2030 and 2050, in this sense “the Government will create a set of incentives so that we can guarantee everyone's adherence to this goal. We must continue to invest in green jobs, but also create conditions for young people and women to participate in this endeavour in terms of the digital transition”.

It should be noted that the focus of the Renewable Energy Project and Improvement of Energy Efficiency in Public Services is framed in promoting the reduction of the country's dependence on fossil energies, the main source of electricity production.

However, according to the presentation made by the Coordinator of the Special Projects Management Unit (UGPE), Nuno Gomes, the “Energy Sector Master Plan – 2018/2040 – set ambitious goals for increasing the implementation of renewable energies: Achieve 30% implementation rate by 2025 and above 50% by 2030; initiate and promote a solar energy development program; Promote the development of storage solutions (BESS and others); Promoting energy efficiency and combating energy losses, as fundamental vectors for reducing energy costs”.

This project came into force on March 15, 2022, with a term of five years, with a closing date on December 31, 2026.

Source: Cape Verde government