Gesto Energia S.A. is an international company focused on energy consulting and renewable energy project development, with emphasis in developing countries, which began its activity in 2008.
With an overall experience of more than 50,000 MW of renewable energy projects in Africa, America, Asia and Europe, Gesto has know-how and experience in the development energy policy and tariff definition as well as master plans, including Least Cost Power Development Plans, and supports all phases of energy project development and energy planning.
Founded with the aim to be a leading independent adviser and trustworthy partner, Gesto is headquartered in Lisbon (Portugal) and with offices in Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, South Africa and Italy.
Currently, Gesto presents a worldwide portfolio of concluded and on-going projects, from resource evaluation to project development, from energy master plans to RE legislation and tariffs: Mozambique Renewable Energy Atlas, Mozambique Energy Strategy 2014-2023, Cape Verde Energy Atlas, Renewable Energy Roadmap to 2020 (Cape Verde), Project Development of solar, wind, biomass, hydro and geothermal projects (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Cape Verde, South Africa, Brasil, etc), Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Plant Pre-Feasibility Study (Namibia), Angola Energy Masterplan 2025, Renewable Electrification Plan of East Timor, Feasibility Study of Brava island 100% Renewable (Cape Verde).
Gesto strength stems from its interdisciplinary and international team, who form the Gesto group local teams, and on the complementary know-how of people they work with from other partner organizations. On the one hand, Gesto collective experience on renewable energy project development comprehends solar, wind, hydro and geothermal projects on a global basis.
So far, Gesto team has: identified and studied more than 50,000 MW, developed and built more than 800 MW, and operation and maintenance of 64 MW of wind projects; identified and studied more than 3,000 MW of solar PV and 1,000 MW of solar CSP projects, and developed more than 50 MW of solar PV projects of which 16 MW are already in operation; and identified and studied more than 40,000 MW of hydro projects, from small hydro to large pump storage projects, for instance, Gesto developed the first Portuguese pumped-storage project (Carvão Ribeira Project), now on EDP (Portuguese electricity utility) portfolio.
Gesto also grants a wide experience in power network studies, having performed several system analysis studies, namely, power flow and transient stability studies for Cape Verde Island.
Included in the project “Angola Energy Masterplan 2025", Gesto conducted the analysis of the existing grid as well as the macro planning of the future transmission system and rural electrification of Angola. Also, in order to evaluate the potential penetration of future renewable energy projects, Gesto performed the necessary studies to estimate the network absorption capacity for RE.
On the other hand, Gesto presents an extensive experience in energy consulting and, consequently, a worldwide portfolio of concluded and ongoing energy consulting projects, namely, Gesto has supported and supports Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Namibia and Mozambique Governments on the identification of renewable energy projects and definition of renewable energy policies. Regarding project development, for instance, Gesto is one of the 5 TOP geothermal players in Italy having 4 concessions areas in the region of Tuscany, one of the most productive geothermal areas in the World.
Finally, Gesto world-class expertise and commitment to excellence has been assuring its international recognition, including, but not limited to, Gesto being selected by the World Bank as one of the TOP 3 World consultants for hydro resource evaluation and, hence, awarded with a 4 year framework contract for renewable hydro mapping services.
Gesto offers consulting services and tailor made and turnkey solutions in all the fields of renewable energy and energy policy, including but not limited to:
Renewable Energy Assessment
Gesto performs evaluation for renewable resources – hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and waves – having already studied 5 million km2, and project identification, with more than 50,000 MW identified worldwide.
Project development
Gesto has vast experience in monitoring and supporting the development of the different phases of renewable energy projects in different parts of the world: Developed and built more than 800 MW, and operation and maintenance of 64 MW of wind projects; identified and studied more than 3,000 MW of solar PV and 1,000 MW of solar CSP projects, and developed more than 50 MW of solar PV projects (10 MW in Rwanda – under development), of which 16 MW are already in operation.
GIS resource analysis and mapping
Gesto accounts with their own procedures, based on experimented and deployed models as r.sun, solar analyst, WRF, MM5, WISDOM as well as proprietary workflows for hydropower and biomass resources. Besides Gesto capabilities, Gesto accounts for a strong network of partners within this domain: Geomodel, Instituto Superior Técnico, among others.
Gesto developed resource mapping in: Portugal; Spain; Italy; East-Timor; Cape Verde; Namibia; Mozambique; Angola; Botswana and South Africa.
Grid studies and rural electrification
Gesto performs the analysis and integration of renewable energy into grid, using the state-of-art planning tools, such as, GIS, ANAREDE, PSSE, PSR, among others. Besides the grid studies, Gesto is able to analyse the feasibility of off-grid electrification of communities based on renewable energies (isolated systems). The grid expansion and rural electrification are usually performed based on an electricity demand studies (top down and bottom up methodologies), for which Gesto also has experience.
Master Plans
Gathering from all the experience shown above, one of Gesto’s main fields of activities is the elaboration of Energy and Power Master Plans, such as the projects developed in East-Timor, Cape Verde or currently in progress in Angola, which includes the methodologies for the least cost planning of grid expansion to meet electrification targets.
Energy policy
Gesto has strong experience on energy policy. Based on the generation assets, resource potential, grid and potential grid expansion, Gesto is able to support decision-makers to draw a suitable energy policy, with achievable goals and ambitious targets, following different scenarios analysis. In Cape Verde, Gesto developed all the legislation that supports the development of renewable energy projects.
As a conclusion, based on an interdisciplinary and international team, Gesto internal capability offers expertise in all relevant fields of renewable energy sources development, from initial mesoscale screening up to the operation and monitoring of power plants.
