As part of the expansion of the wind project Cabeólica, Cape Verde has commissioned new turbines, accompanied of a battery storage system (BESS).

The extension of the Cabeólica wind farm marks a major breakthrough for Cabo Verde, where a model of energy transition based on public-private partnerships and support technical and financial support from international donors. The Cabeólica project is entered into service in 2012 and was already considered a milestone of the energy transition in the archipelago. This initiative has benefitted from a financing of 39 million euros from the European Investment Bank (BEEP). According to official data, it now provides 20% of national electricity, a share that should reach 30% with this new phase.

The extension will allow to increase wind capacity by 13.5 MW and to add 26 MWh of storage by batteries spread over four islands of the archipelago. The project is presented as The first national initiative combining large-scale energy production and BESS. It is expected to generate over 60 gigawatt hours of clean energy per year, reduce expensive thermal generation and lower dioxide emissions of carbon of about 50 000 tons per year.

The entry into service of this extension comes at a time when the Cabo Verde government has reaffirmed its objective of increasing the share of renewable energies to 50% of the mix energy by 2030. If the extension of Cabeólica contributes to progress towards To this end, however, the energy transition depends on more factors wide. It will be necessary to mobilize additional funding, stabilize a regulatory framework still evolving, modernising the network and consolidating the local skills in the management of storage and intermittency