Cape Verde wins SEFA grant to build wave-powered desalination system

The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) has awarded a USD 930,000 (EUR 850,600) grant to Cape Verde to develop the world’s first wave-driven desalination system.

According to a Friday news release of the African Development Bank, which is hosting SEFA, the Wave2O desalination system will be located in Praia Grande,Cape Verde. It will operate completely “off-grid” and supply more than 48,000 people with clean fresh water at a competitive cost.

The system will be developed by Resolute Marine Energy (RME) Cape Verde, a subsidiary of the US-based RME.

Wave2O is expected to have a capacity of 4,000 cubic metres of water per day and will eliminate 5,400 metric tons of CO2 per year.

Launched in 2012, SEFA is a USD 95-million multi-donor facility funded by the governments of Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States and Italy. It supports the sustainable energy agenda in Africa through: grants to facilitate the preparation of medium-scale renewable energy generation and energy efficiency projects; equity investments to bridge the financing gap for small- and medium-scale renewable energy generation projects; and support to the public sector to improve the enabling environment for private investments in sustainable energy. SEFA is hosted by the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Department of the AfDB.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.915)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!