The Promise of Renewable Energy in Cuba Never Arrives
HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban government has spent more than a decade claiming it will no longer depend on fossil fuels. However, amid promise after promise, frequent blackouts have become “brief periods of light”.
The result is a severe electricity generation crisis that adds to the economic, social, and political crises gripping the island. Bioelectric plants are one of those unfulfilled promises. The story repeats itself over and over again, without Diaz-Canel or his administration taking any responsibility.
Watch this video which has subtitles in English.
Yes… Instead of investing on renewable energy the Cuban investors chose to increase hotel capacity even though the occupancy rate is and was below 50%.. I have seen the 5 or 6 wind generators near Gibara and the propaganda is whomever is at the helm didn’t buy the cable necessary to transport the electricity to shore.. Sad if true..
This is sad.
It seems like there could be a ton of solar power in Cuba.
Also super efficient cooling using simple well pipes drilled into the cool earth (far more efficient than standard AC which dumps heat to the hot air — with geocooling you dump heat to the cool earth). For sure Cuba can dig wells cheaply (very old established tech, drilling water wells).
Mike Stritzki, a man in NJ, runs at least one car, a boat, a huge house, 100% on solar — and with on demand backup and storage from hydrogen. No lithium batteries which require exotic elements that rape and scar the earth and sea.
The Caribbean as a whole can benefit massively, including PR, Jamaica. There is far more sun in Caribbean than in New Jersey.
See
https://hydrogenhouseproject.org/
.cool.
Renewal electricity is very capital intensive. Wind only works about 30 to 40% of the time at the same cost to build as a natural gas station that can run as needed
. Solar is a good way to run air conditioning and some day time demands but in the U S the cost is about 18 cents per kw produce base on a 5% interest rate and a 7 cent per kw distribution cost
Vs natural gas at 12 cents on a 24 hour cycle with a 4:cent distribution cost. A much better solution is to build or and retrofit crude oil and diesel power plants and hotel generated units in certain areas and drill at least 200 new natural gas wells for power generation and another 150 for industry uses. The problem is the total cost in hard currency will be over 12 billion U S plus in hard costs equipment another 2 to 3 billion in soft cost . labour planning and I don’t see how Cuba can do this . I do agree that long term solar is a very good ideal and all new distributor centers should have some solar as well hospitals and water treatment centers as part of a long term plan. In Canada our gov thinks it is cheaper to replace all older fridges and freezers than the extra power they use
Yet Cuba charges 3 to 4 times as much as Costco charges in Canada for a new fridge or freezer or Air conditioner that uses less electricity.