Nine units of the country’s seven thermoelectric plants are shut down due to breakdowns.
14ymedio, Havana, 31 March 2025 — With the Government’s accelerated commitment to photovoltaic energy, a new hero has been born in Cuba: the solar panel installer. The official press sings his praises, like this bit from Invasor: “It’s almost 12:00 noon on a Wednesday in March, but René doesn’t care about the date or time. Since the beginning of January his routine is the same. He wakes up at 5:00 in the morning, has breakfast, takes a bus from the Moronse town of Nereida to Grego, in Ciego de Ávila, and works from sunrise to sunset.”
This worker, an employee of the Ciego Norte park, one of the six connected last Friday to the national electricity system (SEN), reflects on the Herculean task that lies ahead: to alleviate the unending energy crisis. “Behind his glasses, his eyes reflect a concern inappropriate for his daily work, although in his hands lays, perhaps, part of the solution itself. René is distressed to know that last night his relatives had a bad night because of the blackouts in Santiago de Cuba, more than 400 kilometers from where he is trying to restore light to the country,” the pompous report continues.
This Monday the generation deficit again approaches 1,500 megawatts. The epic stories, for the moment, solve little. The forecast of the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba (UNE) for peak hours is, specifically, a deficit of 1,360 MW (there is 1,990 MW for a demand of 3,350 MW) and a real shortage of 1,430 MW.
The daily report of the UNE includes, as always, the list of damaged thermoelectric power plants (CTEs) and those shut down for maintenance, a total of nine: two from CTE Mariel, one from Nuevitas, another from Felton, one more from Santa Cruz del Norte, two from Cienfuegos and two from Renté, in Santiago de Cuba.
Due to “thermal limitations” there are 341 MW absent, and due to fuel shortages, 485 MW, corresponding to 75 distributed generation plants, which run on [imported] fuel oil and diesel, while most CTEs use national [crude] oil.
Other thermoelectric workers are no less heroic. Thus, in Sierra Maestra they praise the employees of the Renté, “who perform feats every day to keep an obsolete machinery in operation, on which the life of the country depends.”
The report doesn’t hide, in fact, the antiquity of the ailing plant in Santiago de Cuba, built 59 years ago and whose useful life was estimated at almost 30 years less. Energy in general and the construction of new solar parks – with Chinese technology and funding – mainly occupy the pages of state newspapers.
In addition to Ciego Norte, four other facilities have recently been “synchronized” to the SEN, as advanced by the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy, in the long serialized interview published last week: Mango Dulce, in Artemisa; La Corúa, in Holguín; Jovellanos II, in Matanzas, and Remedios, in Villa Clara.
The latter was inaugurated by a prominent native of the province, the hand-picked president Miguel Díaz-Canel, who was accompanied by De la O Levy himself and other high authorities, such as Ramiro Valdés. Remedios is the first park of this type to be installed in Villa Clara, and the governor, Milaxy Sánchez Armas, said that it will save about 9,000 tons of oil per year.
Ramiro Valdés was also present at the debut of the Mango Dulce, in Artemisa, and the Jovellanos II, in Matanzas
Ramiro Valdés was also present at the debut of the Mango Dulce Photovoltaic Park, in Artemisa, and the Jovellanos II, in Matanzas.
These facilities, all with the same generation capacity, 21.8 megawatts (MW), are added to the School of Nursing, in El Cotorro (Havana), Alcalde Mayor, in Abreus (Cienfuegos) and La Sabana, in Granma.
The government’s plan for 2025 is to enlist 55 photovoltaic parks, out of a total of 92 that they expect to end up providing more than 2,000 MW of generation in 2028. The goal for 2030 is to reach 24% of renewable energy, including wind power.
Although the authorities assure that photovoltaic energy is an “undying hope,” they have also admitted that solar parks will not solve the energy crisis.
If the country has 1,500 MW of deficit, as the Minister of Energy calculated a few days ago, with the 1,000 MW of photovoltaics planned for this year, a third of what is needed will still remain unresolved.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
