Cape Verde - Cabeólica Phase II Expansion Project Senior Loan Wind and Installation of BESS project (AFDB-P-CV-F00-002)

Regions
  • Africa
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Cape Verde
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Specific Location
Santiago, Sal, São Vicente, Boa Vista
Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.
Financial Institutions
  • African Development Bank (AFDB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Jun 13, 2025
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Cabeólica S.A
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 22.01 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 22.01 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Other Related Projects
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Oct 12, 2025

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

As stated by the AfDB, the Government of Cabo Verde (GoCV) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cabeólica on 23 September 2022 to expand the Cabeólica Phase I project. The expansion includes 13.5MW of wind generation in Santiago, a 6MW/6MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Santiago, and another 6MW/6MWh BESS in Sal. These systems will provide key ancillary services to the grid, such as frequency regulation, energy balancing, spinning reserve, and voltage support. Building on the success of Phase I, GoCV launched a competitive tender on 11 August 2023 to procure additional BESS: 8MW/8MWh in São Vicente and 6MW/6MWh in Boa Vista. Cabeólica won this tender on 27 November 2023. The company has since merged both initiatives—the Expansion Project and the New BESS Project—into a single Phase II Project. Together, Phase I and Phase II will deliver 39MW of wind power and 26MWh of battery storage capacity. To meet the commissioning deadline of December 2025, Cabeólica plans to begin construction under advance contracting, funded initially by a Bridge Loan (BL). The company has asked the Bank to retroactively finance costs incurred after 30 June 2024 using BL proceeds. These include engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) costs and development expenses, co-financed with EIB.

The Project will provide an average of 48.3 GWh (at P90) and 57.8 GWh (at P50) per annum of additional renewable energy to households and will ensure a continued supply of low-cost renewable power in Cabo Verde. The availability of reliable and clean electricity will support green growth transition and economic growth in general and improve the financial performance of the power utility, with estimated costs savings of €10 million per annum to Electra. The project will help maintain the supply of low-cost renewable wind energy in Cabo Verde by increasing the share of renewables from 17% to 30% by 2025, while the BESS system will ensure the windfarm serves as a Green Baseload by ensuring predictability of dispatch and preventing the curtailment of wind power. The proposed expansion project will also contribute to the country’s NDC targets of 50% renewable energy generation by 2030, acceleration of economic growth and decarbonization by avoiding the emission of 50,000 CO2-eq per annum and reduced reliance on expensive oil generation.

The Project increases the penetration of renewable energy into the Cabo Verde power system by increasing renewables power generation. This will help further reduce the high utilization of fossil fuels in power generation, in addition, the Project will help the country to realise significant savings estimated at €10 million at current fuels prices as a result of reduced fossil fuel import. The Project is the first commercial scale renewable energy project with a BESS component in Cabo Verde, providing strong demonstration and replication benefits for upcoming projects in the country.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The investment consists of a US$ 22.01 million loan, co-financed by the African Development Bank (US$ 14.12 million) and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (US$ 7.89 million).

Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

As stated by the AfDB, Cabeólica S.A. (the Company) was established in 2009 as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between Infraco Limited, a privately managed infrastructure development company; the Government of Cabo Verde through the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Energy; and the national utility Empresa de Eletricidade e Água (Electra S.A). 

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
Infraco Africa Ltd Parent Company Infrastructure owns Cabeolica SA Client Energy
Infraco Africa Ltd Parent Company Infrastructure contracts with Empresa de Eletricidade e Água (Electra S.A.) Investor Infrastructure

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

AfDB Team Leader:

Charles Oyewole LAWUYI
Email: c.lawuyi@afdb.org 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/request-for-documents. Under the AfDBÕs Disclosure and Access to Information policy, if you feel the Bank has omitted to publish information or your request for information is unreasonably denied, you can file an appeal at https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/appeals-process.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/

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