Better Incentives Needed to Expand Solar Energy in Cuba — Global Issues

by Luis Brizuela (havana)Wednesday, April 17, 2024Inter Press Service

“It is slightly noisy, the gas 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 japanese metropolis of Holguín, advised IPS.

Rodríguez shelled out 850 {dollars} a couple of months in the past for a 2500 watt (W) gasoline-powered generator.

Marileydis Pérez, a homemaker in Batabanó south of Havana, obtained a 900 W generator from her son, who despatched it from his dwelling in america, “to run the followers, the tv and activate the lights on blackout nights.”

Pérez advised IPS that though the federal government created a system of shifts for the sale of gasoline, “simply 5 liters” for many who have registered mills, “I’ve solely been in a position to purchase it that means as soon as in two years.” Consequently, she resorts to the black marketplace for gasoline.

Extremely depending on gas imports, Cuba consumes greater than eight million tons yearly, of which just about 40 p.c 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 scenario, the autumn of the principle sources of overseas foreign money and the tightening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have confronted rising difficulties in assembly gas demand.

An replace of retail costs within the home market led to a rise of greater than 400 p.c 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 price). 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, making an allowance for the alternate price parallel to the federal government’s.

On this nation of 11 million inhabitants, the common 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 in an effort to fulfill their primary wants.

The issues going through the power provide have fuelled the importation of mills, in addition to their sale on the black market. Authorities-owned shops that solely take overseas foreign money 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 mills that produce greater than 900 W has been in place since 2022.

Obstacles

Individuals who spoke to IPS expressed misgivings about using mills as a result of they’re noisy.

They identified that they aren’t at all times positioned outdoors the homes or in ventilated rooms in order that poisonous combustion gases can escape and overheating could be prevented.

When IPS requested about the opportunity of photo voltaic panels, Pérez stated that “along with being very troublesome to search out outdoors Havana, they often come with out batteries, and if they’re introduced in, they value half 1,000,000 pesos (about 4200 {dollars} on the official alternate price).”

When the general public company Copextel, answerable for advertising and after-sales companies, started to promote them in late 2021, “they had been at 55,000 pesos” (2,300 {dollars} on the official alternate price on the time), unaffordable for anybody who is determined by their wages or on a pension,” stated 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 will pay for electrical energy for greater than 20 years,” added Rodríguez.

One other hurdle for the growth of solar energy within the residential sector lies within the electrical energy tariff subsidy, which is charged in a devalued foreign money.
In line with official figures, round six p.c of the greater than 4 million households in Cuba devour greater than 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per thirty days. Above that threshold, the electrical energy tariff was elevated by 25 p.c since March to eradicate subsidies.

By putting in photo voltaic panels, this section of the inhabitants may discover a approach to offset the quantity of the invoice via cogeneration for self-consumption or obtain a fee for injecting clear power into the nationwide grid.

“Those that have primarily bought the panels are folks with excessive incomes, particularly house owners of hostels and rental homes. It makes it doable for them to supply air con in rooms for vacationers and different companies throughout the day,” Dunia Ulloa, industrial supervisor of Copextel’s department within the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, advised IPS.

Initiatives and incentives nonetheless fall quick

About 95 p.c of Cuba’s electrical energy technology depends on fossil fuels, which embrace the pure fuel produced with home oil, offshore oil rigs leased from Turkey, in addition to diesel and gas oil primarily based mills and engines.

The federal government goals for renewables to account for round 30 p.c of electrical energy technology by 2030, up from the present 5 p.c.

With an put in capability of 260 megawatts (MW), the photo voltaic parks put in on this Caribbean nation represented two p.c of annual electrical energy technology on the finish of 2023, in accordance with official information.

On Mar. 14, Minister of Vitality 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 should be fulfilled, and the second by 2028. Every one additionally has a further 100 MW of storage capability, he stated.

Since 2014 Cuba has had a Coverage for the Growth of Renewable Vitality 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 alternate price) the value per kWh from renewable sources delivered to the nationwide grid by unbiased producers in residential areas.

As well as, the laws waive for as much as eight years the tax on income for financial actors that perform electrical energy technology initiatives with renewable power sources, and the customs tax on the importation of kit to that finish.

The outcomes should not very encouraging, pending extra enticing proposals for people to spend money on inexperienced energies, in an effort 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 associated fee is similar for supplies or tools, whether or not they’re helpful or detrimental to power consumption.

In contrast to different nations the place folks make a dwelling from promoting clear power, in Cuba those that set up photo voltaic panels primarily search power self-sufficiency, that’s, to have electrical energy even throughout blackouts.

“Photo voltaic panels are the perfect, there isn’t any gas value or noise. However they must be bought with actual incentives to ensure that extra folks to spend money on them,” entrepreneur Félix Morffi, 86, a former mid-level technician in equipment and gear restore and a tenacious advocate of fresh power alternatives, advised 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 overlaying his family wants, the excess electrical energy he produces goes to the nationwide grid.

“An important aspect is to supply credit score. Not everybody has the cash to purchase the tools. The opposite is to not get slowed down in pink tape, as a result of it scares folks off. Banks should have individuals who deal solely with this concern, who’re educated, and who need to get issues transferring. If that occurs, you will note how within the neighborhoods increasingly more folks begin to put up panels,” stated Morffi.

In his view, “those that produce probably the most needs to be acknowledged, maybe by giving them family home equipment, rising the charges paid to them for surplus power or overlaying a part of the funding. Ultimately, it’s a achieve for the nation and reduces gas bills.”

© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal supply: Inter Press Service

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