In a country with plentiful sunshine, officials have long had the opportunity to encourage solar power as a solution to national energy problems
People drive their vehicles past a floating generator in operation, in Havana, Cuba , on Oct. 22. Nearly all of the country’s power comes from burning fossil fuels. Cuba ’s large-scale blackouts that left 10 million people without power this month may not have happened if the government had built out more solar power to boost its failing electric grid as promised, some experts say.
Cuban officials blame the blackouts on the U.S. trade embargo and other sanctions, the pandemic’s effect on tourism, and emigration all inhibiting “So all of this investment and financing, not just from the U.S. but from other countries … that are ready to take a chance in Cuba, sit idle, and that is hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.The share of Cuba’s electricity that comes from renewable sources like solar and burning sugar cane waste has increased only slightly, from 3.8% in 2012 to 5% as of 2022, according to research from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School and EDF.
Kavulich said even China has its limits. The view of China’s private sector, he said, is that Cuba “seems to make no effort whatsoever to pay money that it owes.” Cuba has struggled with frequent power outages for decades. Besides the U.S. economic embargo, officials have cited aging and insufficiently maintained power plants, increased demand for air conditioning and a lack of fuel for the lack of electricity. The nation relies on imported fuel to meet electric needs, including from oil-rich ally Venezuela, Mexico and Russia.
Whittle noted the country has no shortage of good climate scientists. Korey Silverman-Roati, senior fellow of carbon management and negative emissions at the Sabin Center, said the Cuban government is trying. “There certainly has been a will and attempts to build out renewable energy infrastructure,” he said. “It just hasn’t happened.”
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