20 photovoltaic plants are needed to replace the more than 400 MW lost with the closure of five floating power plants
14ymedio, Havana, 28 February 2025 — With great enthusiasm the Cuban authorities boasted a week ago of having synchronized the first photovoltaic park in Havana, named Escuela de Enfermería, to the national electrical system (SEN), which will provide the country with 35,000 megawatt-hours (MW/h) per year. They plan to install 55 photovoltaic parks with Chinese technology before the end of this year, and this Friday, the Cuban authorities announced the inauguration of the second one. It is named Alcalde Mayor, is located in Cienfuegos and has the same generation capacity as the first of 21.87 megawatts (MW).
A report in the newspaper 5 de Septiembre reiterates what Cubadebate said about the synchronization of the park in Havana, that the operation of the Alcalde Mayor, in the municipality of Abreus, Cienfuegos, will allow an annual saving of 8,500 tons of diesel. Also, it is anticipated that in the coming months the province will have two other facilities of the same type: La Yuca, also in Abreus, and Mal Tiempo, in Cruces, with the same capacity, which will be added to another 18 MW already operational and from smaller parks.
However, the speed with which progress is being made in what the regime has called “a change of energy matrix” by betting on solar energy with the help of China, does not seem to be enough to end the blackouts on the Island, neither in the short nor in the medium term. Above all, it does not take into account something to which the Government has given minimum publicity: the departure of the Turkish floating power plants from Cuban ports.
The loss of floating power plants, says Piñón, “puts the reliability of the SEN at risk this summer”
Sold at the time to public opinion as an energy solution, there were eight of those patanas in the country, but today there are only three , all of them in Havana, as announced by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, in December. One of them, the Belgin Sultan – which suffered a fire five months ago that left two workers dead and another six injured – is simply a service ship, so, for electricity generation purposes, there are only two, which produce when they have fuel for their engines. The Suheyla Sultan, has a capacity of 240 MW, in Tallapiedra/Melones, and the Erol Bey, provides 63 MW, in Regla.
When the Cuban government ran out of money to pay the rent to the Turkish company Karadeniz, the other floating power plants, reports the energy specialist of the University of Texas, Jorge Piñón, went to Ecuador (Erin Sultan), Guyana (Ela Sultan and Baris Bay) and the Dominican Republic (Esra Sultan and Irem Sultan). “It would take 20 solar parks of
those that are currently being installed (of about 20 MW each) to cover the loss of more than 400 MW of generation of the five patanas that have left Cuba,” Piñón explains to 14ymedio.
The expert recalls that, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei), the contribution to the SEN of these floating units “was important in the total generation of the National Electric Union (UNE).” Specifically, 2,591 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2022, 14% of the total, and almost double in 2023, 4,494 GWh, 23% of the total.
The loss of floating power plants, says Piñón, “puts the reliability of the SEN at risk this summer,” the season of highest energy demand in Cuba.
Although the specialist says he recognizes and applauds that the Escuela de Enfermería “was built on schedule,” he believes that the objectives of the Cuban regime for this 2025 “are pharaonic.”
Enumerating the details of the government plan – from January to June, 27 solar installations with 590 MW of power, and from July to December, 28 with 610 MW of power; that is, 55 at the end of the year with 1,200 MW – Piñón calculates that this means completing in just twelve months 60% of the goal established for 2030, 92 parks with 2,000 MW of power.
“I wish them good luck. Perhaps they learned from the booklet that the Chinese read to Díaz-Canel and from his lessons,” says the expert, referring to the trip that the Cuban president made in November 2022 to China. Díaz-Canel himself then let drop the conditions set by his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, by declaring: “Our commitment must be fulfilled well; we must do things well, take advantage of opportunities, be efficient, not waste resources, and ensure that investments have an adequate return. We must be increasingly serious and more effective also in the projects we propose to continue expanding cooperation.”
In this regard, Piñón, who has 30 years of experience in the private energy sector, emphasizes: “The biggest obstacle Cuba has in finishing its projects is its lack of project management, not the embargo, nor the lack of financing or technology. Management, management and management.”
Thus, according to the specialist, the decision of US President Donald Trump to revoke Chevron’s license to produce and export oil from Venezuela can paradoxically benefit Cuba.
Chevron contributed to the increase in Venezuelan crude oil production, which reached almost one million barrels a day (bpd) last December, far from the three million bpd of 25 years ago but more than double that in 2020. Piñón believes that the state oil company Pdvsa will try to maintain current production to avoid the closure of wells – the process of reactivating them is very expensive – and, therefore, will have more crude oil available for Cuba. “It is very possible that, in the coming months, Pdvsa will return to the average of 55,000 bpd, as in 2023.”
On the other hand, the other major fuel supplier to Havana, Mexico, will probably have to reduce its deliveries of crude oil and gasoline – it is not clear whether they are donations or barter for the shipment of Cuban doctors – to reduce the debt of the state-owned Pemex. This Wednesday, the Mexican Chamber of Deputies voted an amendment to the Hydrocarbon Income Law to reduce the tax burden of the state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), according to the Spanish agency EFE.
The initiative, supported by the official majority, establishes a new tax regime called Oil Law for Wellbeing, with the aim of remediating the finances of the state company and promoting its competitiveness in the energy sector.
Meanwhile, the electricity deficit expected this Friday once again exceeds 1,500 MW, the usual in recent weeks. For a demand of 3,250 MW there is an availability of 1,695 MW, and a real affectation of 1,695 MW is expected late evening during peak hours. It is lower than the maximum recorded on Thursday, 1,719 MW, which is dangerously close to the 1,800 MW that, last September, caused the SEN to collapse.
In the UNE statement today, there is no mention of the Turkish patanas. This newspaper verified that of the 12 engines of the Suheyla Sultan, three are off, since its chimneys do not emit smoke, probably due to lack of fuel. The Regla floating power plant is working, although it could not be verified if all eight of its engines were on.
The report does offer, again, an inventory of all the broken or in-maintenance plants: unit 5 of the Mariel CTE, the 1 and 2 of Santa Cruz, the 5 of Nuevitas, the 3 and 4 of Cienfuegos, the 5 of the Renté and units 1 and 2 of Felton.
The Government’s hopes for this weekend reside in the Lidio Ramón Pérez thermoelectric power plant, in Felton, in Mayarí (Holguín). The official press has announced that the recovery of block 1, which stopped unexpectedly on February 11, is imminent, but it has not yet happened.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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