Cuba will keep all non-essential workplaces and schools closed through Sunday as it battles a crippling island-wide electricity shortage and recovers from a deadly hurricane.
The energy-saving measures come as the government scrambles to restore power across the nation, which went dark Friday after its largest power plant collapsed and fuel failed to reach other plants, causing the entire energy grid to collapse.
Originally, the government said workplaces and schools would reopen on Thursday.
Visiting the southeastern town of San Antonio del Sur, which was clobbered by a flash flood caused by the hurricane, President Miguel Diaz-Canel told residents Wednesday, "You are not alone or abandoned."
Cuba''s electricity is generated by eight ageing, oil-fired thermoelectric plants, some of which are broken down or under maintenance, seven floating plants leased from Turkish companies that have faced fuel shortages, and many diesel-powered generators.
The large thermoelectric plants were built in the 1970s and have a lifespan of between 25 and 30 years, according to Jorge Pinon, a Cuban-born energy expert at the University of Texas at Austin. "They''re breaking down all the time," he told Al Jazeera, comparing them to the classic old US cars that are a popular tourist attraction in the capital, Havana.
"They have a structural problem and they need to recapitalise the whole system," he added.
Concerned about social unrest and sporadic street protests, Díaz-Canel has warned that his government will not tolerate attempts to "disturb public order".
In July 2021, blackouts sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public anger, with thousands of Cubans taking to the street and chanting slogans including "Freedom!" and "We are hungry."
Dozens of people took to the streets over the weekend in one neighbourhood, banging pots and pans and shouting "Turn on the lights."
The Cuban government and its allies blame the United States''s 62-year-old trade embargo on the island for its economic and energy problems, including the sanctioning of oil tankers that deliver fuel from Venezuela.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that the Cuban government''s "long-term mismanagement of its economic policy and resources has certainly increased the hardship of people in Cuba".
Travel around rural Latin America and you are sure to see schools without basic educational tools let alone electricity. Not in Cuba. Over 34,000 children in rural areas of the Caribbean island are reading, writing and watching educational videos by the power of the sun.
Cuba’s commitment to education is astounding. Although many countries have obligatory schooling, Cubans take obligatory schooling to mean that they are required to provide the best educational opportunities possible for their children. They also take family seriously. In order to allow small children to remain close to their homes, every rural community, no matter how remote or how small, has a primary school. And every primary school in these remote areas is powered by photovoltaics.
Before 1959, Cuba was using 800 MW of electricity, and the majority of it was in the large cities. After the Cuban revolution in 1959, the government made rural electrification a priority, and in the next 30 years, 95% of the country was electrified with over 3000 MW. However, Cuba had been buying oil inexpensively from the Soviet Union. The 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union, along with a tightening of the U.S. enforced economic blockade, led to the bottom falling out of the Cuban economy, which the Cubans call the “Special Period”.
They now have to buy oil on the international market, which their fledgling economy cannot afford. This led to a desire to decrease their dependence on fossil fuels and use more renewables. And, even during the “Special Period” social programs such as education and health care were not cut, but remained a high priority of the Cuban revolution.
In order to better the quality of education for their children, in the year 2000 the Cuban government financed a programme to electrify all of the primary schools in the country that had no electricity. The programme was carried out by the solar panel distributor company Ecosol Solar. In less than one year from the time the first solar panel was installed, 1,994 schools had a photovoltaic system.
Each system consists of a 165 watt module, a 20 amp controller, a 250 watt inverter and a 220 amp-hour battery bank. Three of the systems also include a small wind generator. Each school has two 15 watt DC lights, and an ac television and VCR for educational programs. The systems are designed to run five hours a day if they watch a video. Without the video, the systems can run for eight hours a day.
In order to carry out such an ambitious project, the non-governmental organisation Cubasolar and Ecosol trained brigades in each of the provinces in the installation of PV systems. The brigades were made up of representatives of Ecosol, University professors, students, teachers and other volunteers from the province. These 25 brigades went to the rural areas, installed the systems and trained local people in the maintenance of the systems.
A maintenance video was shown to the teachers at each school. The teachers are in charge of monitoring the battery level, and occasionally cleaning the panels. Every ninety days each school receives a maintenance visit from a technician. There is also a repair shop in each province, and a minor repair shop in each territory (the provinces are made up of numerous territories) set up by Ecosol. An Ecosol technician also does a periodic inspection of the entire system.
There have been no reported problems with any of the school systems so far. Even with the PV electrified health clinics program, which began in 1987 (see Home Power #66, August/September 1998) there have been very few fatalities. Many of these systems have actually survived three hurricanes with no damage. Ecosol credits the lack of failures of the systems to user training.
The PV electrified schools bring the total number of PV systems in Cuba to over 2400. These include 320 health clinics, 100 social centers, four rural hospitals and numerous houses. Currently Cuba is importing part of their photovoltaic hardware. However, they have built their own charge controllers and they also have a PV manufacturing plant in Pinar del Rio where they are producing PV modules with 14% efficiency. Due to their economic situation, they are currently not producing their panels for use. However, with financing the factory could produce one megawatt of PV panels a year. Their hope is that in the future the systems can by made up of Cuban parts.
Computers for the Countryside
In June of 2001, Cubasolar received the United Nation’s Environmental Programme ‘Global 500’ Award for this remarkable programme. However, the school electrification program was not finished yet. The Cuban government wants every child in Cuba to have access to a computer. They put a computer in every primary school by March of 2002 and Cubasolar and Ecosol added one more panel to each primary school so that each system can also run the computer.
Children in Cuba not only learn by PV technology, but also learn about PV technology. In the middle of Havana, young children learn about renewable energy in the environmental classroom in Ciudad Libertad. Ciudad Libertad (Freedom City) was an army barracks in pre-revolutionary Cuba. After 1959, it was converted into a school complex. It now contains preschool through university classrooms. Children from schools all over Havana use the environmental education classroom in Ciudad Libertad to learn about environmental issues including energy conservation, recycling and renewable energy.
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