The Cape Verde Islands form an archipelago off the African coast in the Atlantic Ocean. Since it is highly dependent on fossil fuels, Cape Verde decision makers have started to take into account also the potential of renewable energies, especially wind and solar. In particular, wind power has already 26 MW' installed. From this perspective, the present work aims to be a first step in the evaluation of a different source of renewable energy, the wave energy. Using reanalysis data from ECMWF, the SWAN model was run for a 10-year period, covering the time interval 2004-2013, using a methodology already implemented in other island environments. Moreover, three years of this high resolution data are compared with the available altimetry data. In this way, a dataset of the sea state conditions around Cape Verde Islands was produced. This dataset is further used for wave climate analyses and wave energy resource assessments. This study indicates that the coastal environment of the Cape Verde Islands, and especially some particular areas, present considerable wave energy resources that should be taken in consideration for extraction in the near future. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.