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REPORTS: CUBA |
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Solar
Panels to Light Up Remote Households
Patricia
Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) - Around 500,000 people
living in remote mountainous areas of
Cuba will finally be able to pack away
their oil lamps, listen to radio, and
even watch TV, thanks to the growing
use of renewable energy sources in
this Caribbean island nation.
''A plan got underway this year to
bring electricity to some 100,000
homes using photovoltaic (solar)
panels,'' Luis Bérriz, president of
the non-governmental organisation
Cubasolar, which promotes the use of
renewable, green-friendly sources of
energy, told IPS.
Cubasolar received the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) Global
500 award for its solar energy
programme in June 2001.
The pace at which the project will go
ahead will depend on the funds
available to Cubasolar. ''It would be
great if we could complete it within a
year, but our work will depend on the
available financing,'' said Bérriz.
''These initiatives are costly.''
He said it cost 1,870 dollars to bring
electricity to each home through
photovoltaic or solar electric panels,
and to equip each household with six
lamps, a TV set and a radio cassette
player.
The aim of the ambitious project is to
bring electricity to the five percent
of households in Cuba, a country of
11.2 million, that are not connected
to the national power grid.
''My uncle Manuel lives in the bush
out in Guantanamo, and lights his home
with an oil lamp,'' said Mercedes, a
young mother who has relatives in the
province of Guantanamo, located at the
extreme eastern tip of the island, 971
kms from Havana.
''Everything's really difficult for
him, but he works a small plot of land
out there and raises his livestock,''
she said.
Mercedes explained that she had never
even visited her uncle ''because you
have to hike into the hills'' by foot,
or, in the best of circumstances, ride
in a horse- or ox-drawn cart. ''That
is wild country. My uncle doesn't have
a radio or anything.''
She said that when her grandmother,
who lives on the plains below, needs
to make contact with her son Manuel up
in the hills, she sends a message to a
radio station in the town nearest to
his home, which then dispatches a
messenger.
Experts say solar panel systems are
the best solution for households like
Manuel's, which are dispersed around
isolated mountainous areas.
In the past three years, more than
2,300 primary schools in remote parts
of the country have been provided with
electricity by means of solar panels
and equipped with TV sets, VCRs and
computers, to improve the quality of
teaching.
But local families began to use the TV
sets in the schools to watch the news,
baseball games and soap operas in the
evenings, which left the schools
without energy the next day.
''We had no choice but to prohibit the
use of the equipment for purposes
other than educational ones, although
the situation led to the creation of
community TV and video centres in
1,800 of those villages,'' said Bérriz.
Electricity had previously been
brought to around 400 health clinics,
and over 100 ''social clubs,'' which
were also provided with sound systems
and TV.
''The lives of the people in those
communities changed radically,'' said
Bérriz. ''Now they even dress
differently, and they use shoes where
they preferred to walk around barefoot
before. They see things on TV that
they had never even imagined.''
He explained that the panels are
produced in Cuba, although all of the
parts are imported from countries like
Spain or Germany.
In remote villages where households
are located closer together,
harnessing hydraulic energy was the
chosen solution, through small plants
which currently serve some 26,000
people.
There are also plans for two wind
energy parks which, connected to the
national power grid, would allow
substantial savings of fuel.
One of the wind energy parks is being
built on the island of Turiguanó,
which forms part of the central
province of Ciego de Avila, 461 kms
from Havana. It contains two
aerogenerators or wind turbines with a
generating capacity of 225 kilowatts
each.
The park is small, but experts
estimate that once it is fully
functioning, it will save Cuba 430
tons a year of fuel, and reduce air
pollution by cutting toxic emissions
by 21 tons a year.
Although the cost of producing clean
sources of energy remains relatively
high, Cuba's socialist government has
decided to boost the development of
renewable energy. Last October, it set
up the Renewable Energy Front (FER),
which groups all of the institutions
involved in the question one way or
another.
''There are many reasons for putting
priority on this effort, but the main
one is protection of the
environment,'' Deputy Minister of
Sciences, Technology and the
Environment América Santos, who heads
FER, told IPS.
The use of renewable sources of energy
''is also a step towards economic
independence,'' she added.
Although nearly 90 percent of the
electricity generated by oil comes
from Cuban crude, the bill for
petroleum imports remains one of the
country's biggest financial headaches.
In 2001 and 2002, Cuba spent around
one billion dollars on the fuel
consumed by the country's seven
thermoelectric plants.
Santos said that in their economic
plans for 2004, state-run companies
and agencies must specify what share
of their funds will be dedicated to
the development of clean energy
sources.
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