Cape Verdean government considers renewable energy development ‘urgent’

Cape Verdean Deputy Prime Minister Olavo Correia said the development of renewable energy in the country was urgent, otherwise, he stressed, fixed fuel costs would continue to limit economic growth and job creation.

“We live as if we are a country rich in energy and water: we must change attitudes, behavior and develop a strategy that matches our energy and water emergency,” Olavo Correia said at a public event at the Cape Town Stock Exchange. Green.

Changing energy sources is “one of the urgent and urgent challenges for Cape Verde,” said the government official, who is also minister of finance and business development and minister of the digital economy.

“We have very expensive energy (…), very polluting and highly dependent on external sources,” subject to price fluctuations in international markets and in logistics – an energy security issue that the wars in Ukraine and between Hamas and Israel pose again. highlighted.

When these fixed costs are “high,” it means “the potential for job creation is lower.”

“If we cannot solve the energy problem, make it cheaper, cleaner and less dependent on external sources, we will not be able to double the growth potential of the economy,” he said, justifying it by saying that the future is at stake. And this is why the energy transition should be treated as an emergency.

Olavo Correia asked public and private administrations to make efforts to work “at scale, quickly and at the right time” to guarantee the production of renewable energy that can reach 50% of electricity consumption, because “it is only from there that citizens begin to see the impact on the cost of living.

“All over the world we sell interesting concepts such as the energy transition, digital or virtual reality, [mas se] in practice they don’t see the effect, we will start to lose confidence,” he said.

“It is very important to accelerate the pace,” he concluded.

The Multi-Sectoral Agency for Economic Regulation (ARME) has updated Electra and AEB (Boavista Electricity) end-consumer electricity tariffs, effective January 1, “to protect the economic and financial balance sheet of operators and guarantee sustainability.” services for the supply of electricity to the population,” the department said.

Electricity tariffs for Electra have increased the fuel cost adjustment factor (FACC) by 2.12 escudos (about two euro cents) per billed kilowatt-hour (kWh) at all levels, while for AEB the new tariffs have increased by 3.57 escudos (about three euro cents) per kWh.

Changing energy sources was one of two “extraordinary” issues for Cape Verde that Deputy Prime Minister Olavo Correia announced today, along with creating opportunities for youth, combating rising unemployment in Africa, which he classified as an “atomic bomb” on continent.