HAVANA, Apr 17 (IPS) – With a bolder coverage and versatile cost mechanisms, maybe Alexis Rodríguez would have opted for photo voltaic panels for his dwelling, as a substitute of the transportable generator that has made it potential for him to climate the frequent blackouts attributable to Cuba’s recurrent power crises.
“It is a little bit noisy, the gasoline is pricey, however I can tolerate one and clear up the opposite. What’s insupportable is for my household and I to spend nights and early mornings with out electrical energy, with out relaxation, struggling the warmth and mosquitoes, and with the danger of the meals in our fridge spoiling,” the barber, who lives within the jap metropolis of Holguín, instructed IPS.
Rodríguez shelled out 850 {dollars} a number of months in the past for a 2500 watt (W) gasoline-powered generator.
Marileydis Pérez, a homemaker in Batabanó south of Havana, acquired a 900 W generator from her son, who despatched it from his dwelling in the US, “to run the followers, the tv and activate the lights on blackout nights.”
Pérez instructed IPS that though the federal government created a system of shifts for the sale of gasoline, “simply 5 liters” for individuals who have registered turbines, “I’ve solely been in a position to purchase it that method as soon as in two years.” Because of this, she resorts to the black marketplace for gasoline.
Extremely depending on gasoline imports, Cuba consumes greater than eight million tons yearly, of which nearly 40 % is roofed by heavy home crude oil with a excessive sulfur content material, used primarily in thermoelectric technology.
Over the past 5 years, together with the deterioration of the home financial state of affairs, the autumn of the principle sources of overseas forex and the tightening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have confronted growing difficulties in assembly gasoline demand.
An replace of retail costs within the home market led to a rise of greater than 400 % in gross sales charges since Mar. 1.
The value of a liter of normal gasoline climbed from 25 to 132 Cuban pesos (equal to 1.10 {dollars} on the official fee). The identical was true for normal diesel.
On the black market, a liter of normal gasoline prices 250 to 300 pesos, or 0.70 to 0.85 cents on the greenback, taking into consideration the trade fee parallel to the federal government’s.
On this nation of 11 million inhabitants, the typical month-to-month wage is equal to about 40 {dollars}, which quantities to round 14 {dollars} within the casual reference marketplace for a big variety of merchandise, items and companies to which households have entry with the intention to fulfill their fundamental wants.
The issues going through the power provide have fuelled the importation of turbines, in addition to their sale on the black market. Authorities-owned shops that solely take overseas forex additionally promote them at very excessive costs, far past the attain of most households.
An extension for the non-commercial import of as much as two turbines that produce greater than 900 W has been in place since 2022.
Obstacles
Individuals who spoke to IPS expressed misgivings about the usage of turbines as a result of they’re noisy.
They identified that they don’t seem to be at all times positioned outdoors the homes or in ventilated rooms in order that poisonous combustion gases can escape and overheating might be averted.
When IPS requested about the potential for photo voltaic panels, Pérez mentioned that “along with being very troublesome to seek out outdoors Havana, they normally come with out batteries, and if they’re introduced in, they price half one million pesos (about 4200 {dollars} on the official trade fee).”
When the general public company Copextel, accountable for advertising and marketing and after-sales companies, started to promote them in late 2021, “they have been at 55,000 pesos” (2,300 {dollars} on the official trade fee on the time), unaffordable for anybody who will depend on their wages or on a pension,” mentioned Rodríguez.
The value lined the acquisition, transportation, set up and meeting of the panels and inverters by the corporate’s technicians.
“I spend lower than 200 pesos on electrical energy a month. With what a photo voltaic panel prices I pays for electrical energy for greater than 20 years,” added Rodríguez.
One other hurdle for the enlargement of solar energy within the residential sector lies within the electrical energy tariff subsidy, which is charged in a devalued forex.
In line with official figures, round six % of the greater than 4 million households in Cuba devour greater than 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) monthly. Above that threshold, the electrical energy tariff was elevated by 25 % since March to remove subsidies.
By putting in photo voltaic panels, this section of the inhabitants may discover a technique to offset the quantity of the invoice by cogeneration for self-consumption or obtain a cost for injecting clear power into the nationwide grid.
“Those that have primarily bought the panels are individuals with excessive incomes, particularly house owners of hostels and rental homes. It makes it potential for them to offer air-con in rooms for vacationers and different companies through the day,” Dunia Ulloa, business supervisor of Copextel’s department within the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, instructed IPS.
Initiatives and incentives nonetheless fall short
About 95 % of Cuba’s electrical energy technology depends on fossil fuels, which embrace the pure gasoline produced with home oil, offshore oil rigs leased from Turkey, in addition to diesel and gasoline oil primarily based turbines and engines.
The federal government goals for renewables to account for round 30 % of electrical energy technology by 2030, up from the present 5 %.
With an put in capability of 260 megawatts (MW), the photo voltaic parks put in on this Caribbean nation represented two % of annual electrical energy technology on the finish of 2023, in response to official information.
On Mar. 14, Minister of Power and Mines Vicente de la O Levy reported that two contracts had been signed for the set up of 92 photo voltaic parks in all provinces, with a possible of 2000 MW.
By Could 2025, the primary of the 1,000 MW contracts have to be fulfilled, and the second by 2028. Each additionally has a further 100 MW of storage capability, he mentioned.
Since 2014 Cuba has had a Coverage for the Growth of Renewable Power Sources and their Environment friendly Use, and in 2019, Decree Regulation 345 established laws to extend the share of renewables within the power combine and progressively lower consumption of fossil fuels.
In 2023 the Ministry of Finance and Costs issued Decision 238 which doubled to 6 pesos (0.05 cents of a greenback on the official trade fee) the worth per kWh from renewable sources delivered to the nationwide grid by impartial producers in residential areas.
As well as, the laws waive for as much as eight years the tax on earnings for financial actors that perform electrical energy technology tasks with renewable power sources, and the customs tax on the importation of apparatus to that finish.
The outcomes are usually not very encouraging, pending extra engaging proposals for people to put money into inexperienced energies, with the intention to promote surplus electrical energy to the Cuban State.
The laws don’t exempt the import of those applied sciences for commercialization from customs duties: the fee is similar for supplies or tools, whether or not they’re useful or detrimental to power consumption.
Not like different international locations the place individuals make a residing from promoting clear power, in Cuba those that set up photo voltaic panels basically search power self-sufficiency, that’s, to have electrical energy even throughout blackouts.
“Photo voltaic panels are the most effective, there isn’t any gasoline price or noise. However they should be offered with actual incentives to ensure that extra individuals to put money into them,” entrepreneur Félix Morffi, 86, a former mid-level technician in equipment and gear restore and a tenacious advocate of fresh power alternatives, instructed IPS.
A bunch of 36 photo voltaic panels on the roof of his home present 10 kWh to help the work of his automotive restore store, an autonomous enterprise constructed by Morffi subsequent to his home within the municipality of Regla, within the Cuban capital.
After protecting his family wants, the excess electrical energy he produces goes to the nationwide grid.
“A necessary factor is to offer credit score. Not everybody has the cash to purchase the tools. The opposite is to not get slowed down in crimson tape, as a result of it scares individuals off. Banks should have individuals who deal solely with this situation, who’re skilled, and who wish to get issues transferring. If that occurs, you will note how within the neighborhoods increasingly more individuals begin to put up panels,” mentioned Morffi.
In his view, “those that produce essentially the most ought to be acknowledged, maybe by giving them family home equipment, growing the charges paid to them for surplus power or protecting a part of the funding. Ultimately, it’s a acquire for the nation and reduces gasoline bills.”
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