Cuba to Increase Renewable Energy Output

Cuba is implementing a renewable energy program that will allow increase the output of those sources up to 24 percent to the country´s electric generation capacity by 2030.

Addressing a National Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation, the director of Renewable Energy at the Energy and Mining Ministry, engineer Rosell Guerra said that the program includes the construction of 13 big wind farms with a total output of 633 Megawatts; the setting up of solar panel fields with a 700 megawatt capacity; 19 bio-electric facilities closed to sugar mills with a production capacity of 755 megawatts, and another 74 small hydroelectric plants that would produce 56 megawatts.

There are also other projects that would produce electricity from the processing of biomass, solar energy,and the use of urban, organic, industrial and agriculture wastes.

The expert said that the program includes the setting up of 200 thousand solar heaters in hospitals, homes, industries, and the introduction of LED technology in street and home lighting, as well as the use of solar panels in 21 thousand homes located in remote areas.

The national conference, underway in the eastern Havana town of Cojimar, is being attended by 200 members of the country´s scientific community, particularly for priority sectors such as energy, food production, health, the environment, and others.