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Africa & Middle East / Island & remote community

Sao Vicente Island

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations6
System facts13
Sources reviewed7
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

São Vicente is an isolated Cabo Verde island grid, not a single controller-bounded microgrid. Its modern renewable portfolio includes Cabeólica's 5.95 MW wind farm, the 6 MWp/5 MWac Norte de Baía solar plant inaugurated in November 2025, and an 8 MW/8 MWh lithium-ion battery at Lazareto inaugurated in January 2026. These newer assets supersede the old database's 27 kW solar figure as a representation of island-scale PV, while thermal generation still supplies the balance.

Research status
The original wind farm remains operational; the solar plant entered service November 22, 2025 and the Lazareto BESS January 29, 2026. The Government says the combined system raises renewable penetration to about 40%, but no post-commissioning annual generation or independent reliability report was available by July 2026. Current status is operational/early operations, with performance claims still largely projections or official launch metrics.
Historical classification
Community
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
16.83413, -24.92795
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Sao Vicente Island?

6 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Águas de Ponta Preta (APP) / Impulso Solar

Developer/owner partnership for the Norte de Baía solar plant. [4][3]

Organization

Cabeolica

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Cabeólica S.A.

Owner/operator of the wind farm and Phase II BESS program. [2][7]

Organization

Electra / EDEC and ONSEC

Island utility/grid and system-operation organizations; the BESS is adjacent to Electra's Lazareto plant. [7][5]

Organization

Vestas

Supplier and service provider for the original V52 wind turbines. [2]

Organization

WinPower

EPC/supplier that delivered the 8 MW/8 MWh BESS. [6]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
27 [1]
KW Wind
5950 [1]
Wind
5.95 MW from seven Vestas V52 850 kW turbines. In 2023 it produced 19,313 MWh at 97.9% availability and supplied 23% of island electricity. [2]
Solar
6 MWp DC/5 MW AC at Norte de Baía/Salamansa, expected to produce 10,847 MWh/year and cover more than 15% of island demand. The production/share figures are design expectations, not a full-year operating result. [3][4]
Battery
8 MW/8 MWh lithium-ion at Lazareto, one hour at rated output and Cabo Verde's largest BESS at commissioning. [5][6][7]
Renewable share
23% wind in 2023 before the new solar/BESS; approximately 40% aggregate renewable penetration claimed by government at the January 2026 BESS opening. The latter is not yet backed by a complete annual generation dataset. [2][5]
Expected impacts
Government projects the solar plant will displace about 2,000 tonnes of fuel and 9,194 tonnes of CO2 per year. These remain forecasts. [3]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Wind turbines

Vestas — V52-850 kW

Seven units, 5.95 MW total. [2]

02

Solar PV

Model not publicly disclosed

6 MWp/5 MWac ground-mounted plant on roughly seven hectares; module/inverter models were not published in reviewed official material. [3]

03

BESS

WinPower (EPC/supplier)

8 MW/8 MWh lithium-ion grid-support system at Lazareto; cell/OEM model not publicly established. [6][7]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Grid support

    The BESS is intended for short-term frequency/voltage stability and renewable smoothing on the isolated grid, located about 3.7 km from the wind farm near the thermal plant; it is not multi-hour replacement for thermal generation. [7][5]

  • System boundary

    Wind, solar, battery and thermal plants are distributed across an island utility network. No public source establishes one island-wide microgrid controller, black-start sequence or fully renewable islanding mode. [7]

  • Performance boundary

    2023 wind figures are measured historical results; solar output, fuel/CO2 displacement and roughly 40% renewables are commissioning-stage expectations/claims following assets added in late 2025 and early 2026. [2][3][5]

Provenance

7 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
    Cabeólica Annual Report 2023

    Cabeólica · Primary source

  3. [3]
    Inauguration of the 5 MW São Vicente solar plant

    Government of Cabo Verde · Primary source

  4. [4]
  5. [5]
  6. [6]
  7. [7]
    Simplified ESIA: São Vicente BESS

    Cabeólica · Primary source

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