HAVANA, Apr 17 (IPS) – With a bolder coverage and versatile cost mechanisms, maybe Alexis Rodríguez would have opted for photo voltaic panels for his house, as an alternative of the moveable generator that has made it doable for him to climate the frequent blackouts attributable to Cuba’s recurrent vitality crises.
“It is slightly noisy, the gasoline is pricey, however I can tolerate one and resolve 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, instructed IPS.
Rodríguez shelled out 850 {dollars} a number 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 house in the US, “to run the followers, the tv and activate the lights on blackout nights.”
Pérez instructed IPS that though the federal government created a system of shifts for the sale of gasoline, “simply 5 liters” for individuals who have registered turbines, “I’ve solely been in a position to purchase it that method as soon as in two years.” In consequence, she resorts to the black marketplace for gasoline.
Extremely depending on gasoline imports, Cuba consumes greater than eight million tons yearly, of which just about 40 % is roofed by heavy home crude oil with a excessive sulfur content material, used primarily in thermoelectric era.
Over the last 5 years, together with the deterioration of the home financial state of affairs, the autumn of the principle sources of international foreign money and the tightening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have confronted growing difficulties in assembly gasoline demand.
An replace of retail costs within the home market led to a rise of greater than 400 % in gross sales charges since Mar. 1.
The value of a liter of standard gasoline climbed from 25 to 132 Cuban pesos (equal to 1.10 {dollars} on the official fee). The identical was true for normal diesel.
On the black market, a liter of standard gasoline prices 250 to 300 pesos, or 0.70 to 0.85 cents on the greenback, taking into consideration the trade fee 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 major variety of merchandise, items and providers to which households have entry with a view to fulfill their fundamental wants.
The issues going through the vitality provide have fuelled the importation of turbines, in addition to their sale on the black market. Authorities-owned shops that solely take international 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 turbines that produce greater than 900 W has been in place since 2022.
Obstacles
Individuals who spoke to IPS expressed misgivings about using turbines as a result of they’re noisy.
They identified that they aren’t all the time positioned outdoors the homes or in ventilated rooms in order that poisonous combustion gases can escape and overheating could be averted.
When IPS requested about the potential of photo voltaic panels, Pérez mentioned that “along with being very troublesome to search out outdoors Havana, they often come with out batteries, and if they’re introduced in, they price half 1,000,000 pesos (about 4200 {dollars} on the official trade fee).”
When the general public company Copextel, in control of advertising and after-sales providers, started to promote them in late 2021, “they had been at 55,000 pesos” (2,300 {dollars} on the official trade fee on the time), unaffordable for anybody who depends upon their wages or on a pension,” mentioned 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 enlargement of solar energy within the residential sector lies within the electrical energy tariff subsidy, which is charged in a devalued foreign money.
In accordance with official figures, round six % of the greater than 4 million households in Cuba eat greater than 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per thirty days. Above that threshold, the electrical energy tariff was elevated by 25 % since March to get rid of subsidies.
By putting in photo voltaic panels, this phase of the inhabitants might discover a strategy to offset the quantity of the invoice by cogeneration for self-consumption or obtain a cost for injecting clear vitality into the nationwide grid.
“Those that have primarily bought the panels are individuals 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 providers throughout the day,” Dunia Ulloa, industrial supervisor of Copextel’s department within the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, instructed IPS.
Initiatives and incentives nonetheless fall short
About 95 % of Cuba’s electrical energy era depends on fossil fuels, which embrace the pure gasoline produced with home oil, offshore oil rigs leased from Turkey, in addition to diesel and gasoline oil primarily based turbines and engines.
The federal government goals for renewables to account for round 30 % of electrical energy era by 2030, up from the present 5 %.
With an put in capability of 260 megawatts (MW), the photo voltaic parks put in on this Caribbean nation represented two % of annual electrical energy era 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 Might 2025, the primary of the 1,000 MW contracts have to be fulfilled, and the second by 2028. Each additionally has an extra 100 MW of storage capability, he mentioned.
Since 2014 Cuba has had a Coverage for the Improvement of Renewable Vitality Sources and their Environment friendly Use, and in 2019, Decree Regulation 345 established rules to extend the share of renewables within the vitality combine and regularly 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 trade fee) the value per kWh from renewable sources delivered to the nationwide grid by unbiased producers in residential areas.
As well as, the rules waive for as much as eight years the tax on earnings for financial actors that perform electrical energy era tasks with renewable vitality 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, with a view to promote surplus electrical energy to the Cuban State.
The rules don’t exempt the import of those applied sciences for commercialization from customs duties: the associated fee is identical for supplies or gear, whether or not they’re useful or detrimental to vitality consumption.
In contrast to different nations the place individuals make a dwelling from promoting clear vitality, in Cuba those that set up photo voltaic panels primarily search vitality self-sufficiency, that’s, to have electrical energy even throughout blackouts.
“Photo voltaic panels are one of the best, there isn’t a gasoline price or noise. However they must be bought with actual incentives to ensure that extra individuals to spend money on them,” entrepreneur Félix Morffi, 86, a former mid-level technician in equipment and power restore and a tenacious advocate of fresh vitality alternatives, instructed 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 built by Morffi next to his house within the municipality of Regla, within the Cuban capital.
After masking his family wants, the excess electrical energy he produces goes to the nationwide grid.
“An important ingredient is to supply credit score. Not everybody has the cash to purchase the gear. The opposite is to not get slowed down in crimson tape, as a result of it scares individuals off. Banks will need to have individuals who deal solely with this problem, who’re educated, and who need to get issues transferring. If that occurs, you will notice how within the neighborhoods an increasing number of individuals begin to put up panels,” mentioned Morffi.
In his view, “those that produce essentially the most must be acknowledged, maybe by giving them family home equipment, growing the charges paid to them for surplus vitality or masking a part of the funding. Ultimately, it’s a acquire for the nation and reduces gasoline bills.”
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service