Cabeólica, Sub-saharan Africa’s first large-scale Public Private Partnership in the wind energy sector, celebrates its fifth year of operation

Dear Readers,

Cabeólica is a groundbreaking project that stemmed from Cape Verde’s aspirations to increase wind energy penetration by promoting a Public Private Partnership (PPP) which engaged foreign investment and technical and business know-how. The PPP was established between Africa Finance Corporation, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation, InfraCo Africa Limited, the State of Cape Verde and Electra SARL., the Government-owned national utility company, and resulted in the creation of Cabeólica S.A., the first commercial-scale, privately financed, Public Private Partnership wind farm project in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company now owns and operates four wind farms in Cabo Verde with a total installed capacity of 25.5 MW, making it the first large-scale wind farm project implemented in the ECOWAS region.

During its first five years of continuous operation, the company has been revealing its commitment to the production of clean, reliable energy aligned with the orientations of the country’s policy for the sector. With the conclusion of this phase, which was characterized by the challenging introduction of large amounts of renewable energy in grids managed essentially on the principle of dispatching thermal power, the company has satisfactorily met expectations and requisites for the delivery of energy to the public electricity networks.

To date, the company’s wind farms have produced more than 390,000 MWh, representing roughly 22% of the country’s electricity needs. This contribution has placed Cabo Verde amongst the countries with the highest wind energy penetration rates in the world and the country with the highest percentage of wind energy within its electricity matrix in all of Africa.

Throughout this time, the company has ensured standards of quality and efficiency and remained committed to fulfilling its environmental mitigation plan, as well as its social obligations.

The consistency of the results presented by the company and the excellence in its performance are acknowledged domestically and abroad, and have also been registered by several awards, attributed to the company, that have recognized its merit.

The fifth year of successful operation is a historic milestone which Cabeólica will be celebrating with an international conference, counting on the participation of its stakeholders.

In 2015, Cabeólica joined ALER with the certainty of the importance of this collaboration in bringing the company closer to the Lusophone renewable energy community. Cabeólica is honoured to be part of ALER and participating in the promotion of the Lusophone community as a global actor in the world of renewable energy.
 

Antão Manuel Fortes

Cabeólica Chief Executive Director