The Cuban National Electric Union (UNE) is implementing a program to install 5,000 2-kW photovoltaic (PV) systems, donated by China, with the goal of diversifying the energy mix and ensuring essential services amidst the current energy crisis.
Elena Maidelín Ortiz Fernández, head of the project to install these systems, explained to a Cuban newspaper that the distribution was carried out collaboratively with all the relevant agencies at the national, provincial, and municipal levels. “The decision was made to allocate 2,671 systems for installation in vital centers in every municipality,” she stated. The remainder will be installed in isolated homes, including some that have never had access to electricity.
Among the institutions benefiting from the systems are maternity homes, nursing homes, senior centers, polyclinics (emergency rooms), funeral homes, bank branches (including exchange bureaus), municipal radio stations, radio transmitters, communications facilities of ETECSA, and commercial offices of the UNE. Ortiz Fernández emphasized that the goal is not total self-sufficiency for these centers, but rather ensuring their energy survival during critical times. “Installing a 2-kW system in a vital municipal center is the perfect tool to protect what is essential, what is truly needed to achieve autonomy for that municipality,” she stated.
The project manager explained that these systems are isolated and not connected to the electrical grid, allowing the centers to continue operating even during power outages. This will enable activities such as vaccinations, care for seniors in nursing homes, and the operation of banks, which are currently affected by power outages.
Ortiz Fernández said that her team has worked intensively with provincial electric companies and local governments to overcome fuel and transportation limitations. “We coordinated beforehand with all the carriers who could help us move these resources, and therefore, meticulous planning was done to achieve what we have today: having the resources in all the provinces in order to install these systems,” she said.
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The remaining 2,329 systems will be installed in isolated homes that have generators with a four-hour supply but that cannot operate due to a lack of fuel. “It’s very difficult to obtain this resource, both to deliver and to transport it to these communities,” she noted.
Ortiz Fernández added that these PV systems allow users greater autonomy because they can connect more appliances for longer periods in hard-to-reach places where fuel is not regularly delivered. Homes that have never had electricity, the so-called “zero-volt” homes, will also benefit, she noted.
She also highlighted the social impact of this measure. “If you install a 2-kW system for these people there—allowing them to have a refrigerator, a fan, a television—their lives change completely, and we help prevent them from migrating from their communities.”
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In addition to this Chinese donation, UNE is developing other renewable energy projects. Ortiz Fernández mentioned the charging station program for children dependent on electricity, which has 126 units, a program she described as “a guarantee of life for them.” To date, 114 of these systems have been installed, which include solar panels for charging batteries.
Likewise, in the province of Holguín, a project donated by Canada is underway to install 502 2-kW PV systems for isolated homes in that region. “This project includes other areas, but our role, as the Electric Union, is the installation of these systems, and we have already installed 60%,” she reported.
Ortiz Fernández emphasized that these programs not only represent savings but also an option for energy resilience, ensuring that during the most critical blackouts in Cuba, these essential services for the community will continue to operate.
—Amaury Pérez Sánchez (amauryps@nauta.cu) is a chemical engineer at the University of Camagüey in Cuba.
