14ymedio, Madrid, 6 March 2024 — The repair of Cuba’s obsolete infrastructure to produce electricity would take between six and ten years, in addition to a colossal investment: 10 billion dollars. It is one of the devastating figures included in a report from Cuba Siglo 21 signed by Emilio Morales and made public this Wednesday.
Titled Cuba Collapses and Also Turns Off the Light, the text analyzes the dramatic energy situation of the Island, “after decades of negligence in maintenance,” a few days after the entry into force of the so-called economic package, with an increase in the price of fuel of more than 400%.
The Electric Union has a generation availability of 2,097 megawatts (MW) and a maximum demand of 3,000 MW
The Electric Union (UNE) has a generation availability of 2,097 megawatts (MW) and a maximum demand of 3,000 MW, the report notes, which implies a deficit of 903 MW, a third of what it would need to meet the demand. A figure, it is also noted, that may grow in the coming weeks.
Morales indicates that “the energy challenges facing Cuba do not have an immediate solution,” since the country “lacks domestic resources of oil or natural gas to meet the demand for electricity production, which forces it to depend on imports.”
The analyst also deals with the promised production of electricity with alternative sources, of which he says that “it is not a magic wand and takes time to develop them.”
Even more, he asserts that the goal to reach 37% of renewable energies by 2030 crowed about by the ruling party “is a fantasy of the Cuban Government.” And he lists: “Investments in renewable energies have been insufficient and poorly planned. In 2013, the installed capacity for electricity generation in the country based on renewable sources was just 4.3%. Ten years after defining those goals, the generation capacity in renewable energies grew only 0.96%. Projects such as the biomass plant at the Ciro Redondo Sugar Plant have failed due to the decrease in sugar cane production. Wind energy has also faced difficulties in materializing.”
With this panorama, the price increase that came into force on March 1 “will not solve the energy crisis”
With this panorama, the price increase that came into force on March 1, Morales insists, “will not solve the energy crisis.” This, he continues, “will only increase inflation, distort the prices of products and services in the market, increase the distortion of wages and will not contribute to a stabilization of the economy.”
There is only one solution, according to the consultant: “Eliminate the model of nationalized (totalitarian) centralization of the economy and go to a free market economy.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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