EIB, African Development Bank to lend EUR 45m for wind farms in Africa

(ADPnews) - Oct 8, 2010 -The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the African Development Bank yesterday agreed to provide EUR 45 million (USD 62m) to design, build and operate onshore wind farms on four islands in the Cape Verde archipelago, in Africa.

The EIB will provide EUR 30 million and the African Development Bank EUR 15 million for the EUR 65 million project, which will create over 28 MW of electricity generating capacity. The project is being developed by InfraCo in a public-private partnership between the government of Cape Verde and local power utility Electra.

All wind farms are expected to be operational by the end of 2011 and help the country reach its target of ensuring that 25% of local power needs are met by renewable energy by 2012 and 50% by 2020.

Wind energy was first introduced to Cape Verde in 1994, but until now covers only 2% of the power needs in the small island state located 500 km (310 miles) of the West African coast.

(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.388)

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