Praia, July 9, 2025 (Lusa) - The energy transition announcements made by the Cabo Verdean government will translate into a reduction in electricity costs in the coming years, and consumer bills will reflect these savings, the Minister of Energy told Lusa on Wednesday.
“In the plan we have been working on, there is clearly a downward trend” in costs, said Alexandre Monteiro in Praia, on the sidelines of the award of a contract for more efficient public lighting for the entire archipelago.
“Our goal is to work to reduce costs in production, distribution and consumption. (…) It is the combination of these three factors that reduces the energy bill, and everything we are doing is to reduce costs, which will have an impact on the bill,” he said.
When Lusa questioned him, the minister said the figures for this reduction to contracts were yet to be finalised and ongoing analyses.
Parties will finalise contracts later this year to increase energy production and storage capacity; the projects they are now finalising will support Cabo Verde in 2030, with 50 per cent or more of its electricity coming from renewable sources.
This data will serve to “effectively provide a more realistic forecast of what the impacts will be” on energy costs.
“The trend is towards a reduction, and we will quantify this based on concrete data from the investments that are now going ahead,” said the minister.
In June, Cabo Verde’s prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, said that “the total contracted production capacity in 2024 and 2025 is 53.3 megawatts, which puts the country on track to achieve 35% renewable penetration in 2026”.
The figures are “in line with the target of reaching 50% or more in 2030,” he added.
Alexandre Monteiro pointed out to Lusa the dependence on technological aspects, for example, in terms of “energy storage solutions.”
“We have renewable solutions, and they offer tremendous flexibility. We need batteries that are still in the process of stabilising their technological cost” globally, the trend is toward “better prices in the future, and the cost is becoming more affordable,” he said.
In any case, the ongoing transition will have “a clear impact” on energy costs.
“We are reducing the country’s exposure to international [fuel] price fluctuations and relying more on endogenous and renewable resources, which are a competitive solution in Cabo Verde,” along with a commitment to “energy efficiency” on the consumption side, he concluded.
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