Africa-Press – Cape verde. The construction of the solar plant with a capacity of 1.4 megawatts and batteries of two megawatts/hour will change the island’s energy transition, said today the chairman of Electra’s board of directors.
According to Luís Teixeira, this is a Government project that represents “more or less half of the island’s current production” and with “a lot of impact”, especially on the energy transition and the reduction in fuel input and consumption on the island.
Luís Teixeira said that a competition was launched for the solar panels with a winner and the contractor confirmed, as the works will begin in mid-June/July, in the town of Patim, south of the municipality of São Filipe, where it will be located the central.
Regarding batteries, he said that they are currently in the process of launching a public tender to select a supplier.
Luís Teixeira said that Electra is just a buyer of the energy that will be produced and that the Government has been leading the entire process and, therefore, refused to advance the value of the financing.
On the other hand, the president of the board of directors of Electra, who is on the island of Fogo to inaugurate the Mosteiros store, said that the company is setting up a “big project” with the government to change all the light bulbs, making the transition from sodium and mercury vapor lamps to LED, as happened on the islands of Sal and Santiago (Praia) and with “significant gains”, with savings of “more than 50 percent (%)”.
According to him, someone has to pay for public lighting and today it is the citizens who pay and when less energy is spent on “illuminating Cape Verde” there will be fewer costs.
“In Cape Verde we have something we call ‘scada’, a national dispatch center, which monitors the electrical system and at the moment we only have it on three islands, Santiago, Sal and São Vicente, and we are in the process of taking it to the other islands, including Fogo”, said Luís Teixeira, hoping that “very soon” the island can be integrated into the system.
The same source acknowledged that public lighting is always a problem because people ask for a station next to their house, adding that it cannot be seen from this perspective.
“On the island of Fogo we have around 4,200 public lighting points with a ratio of 12 points for every 100 thousand inhabitants. It’s a reasonable number, but we need to improve and we are in the process of reinforcing the lighting” highlighted Luís Teixeira.
Finally, he indicated that the points that do not yet have lighting will be covered and in areas with faulty lamps, maintenance and replacement will be carried out, noting that the company received a “good stock” of lamps, but for the whole of Cape Verde.
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