HAVANA, Apr 17 (IPS) – With a bolder coverage and versatile fee mechanisms, maybe Alexis Rodríguez would have opted for photo voltaic panels for his residence, as an alternative of the transportable generator that has made it attainable for him to climate the frequent blackouts brought on by Cuba’s recurrent vitality crises.
“It is a bit of noisy, the gasoline is dear, however I can tolerate one and clear up 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, informed IPS.
Rodríguez shelled out 850 {dollars} a couple of months in the past for a 2500 watt (W) gasoline-powered generator.
Marileydis Pérez, a homemaker in Batabanó south of Havana, acquired a 900 W generator from her son, who despatched it from his residence in america, “to run the followers, the tv and activate the lights on blackout nights.”
Pérez informed IPS that though the federal government created a system of shifts for the sale of gasoline, “simply 5 liters” for many who have registered mills, “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 rising 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 charge). 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 change charge 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 so as to fulfill their fundamental wants.
The issues dealing with the vitality provide have fuelled the importation of mills, 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 mills that produce greater than 900 W has been in place since 2022.
Limitations
Individuals who spoke to IPS expressed misgivings about using mills as a result of they’re noisy.
They identified that they don’t seem to be all the time positioned exterior the homes or in ventilated rooms in order that poisonous combustion gases can escape and overheating will be prevented.
When IPS requested about the opportunity of photo voltaic panels, Pérez stated that “along with being very troublesome to search out exterior Havana, they normally come with out batteries, and if they’re introduced in, they price half one million pesos (about 4200 {dollars} on the official change charge).”
When the general public company Copextel, in command of advertising and after-sales providers, started to promote them in late 2021, “they have been at 55,000 pesos” (2,300 {dollars} on the official change charge on the time), unaffordable for anybody who is dependent upon their wages or on a pension,” stated Rodríguez.
The value coated 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 pays for electrical energy for greater than 20 years,” added Rodríguez.
One other hurdle for the growth 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 devour greater than 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) monthly. Above that threshold, the electrical energy tariff was elevated by 25 % since March to remove subsidies.
By putting in photo voltaic panels, this section of the inhabitants may discover a method to offset the quantity of the invoice via cogeneration for self-consumption or obtain a fee for injecting clear vitality into the nationwide grid.
“Those that have primarily bought the panels are individuals with excessive incomes, particularly homeowners of hostels and rental homes. It makes it attainable for them to offer air-con in rooms for vacationers and different providers throughout the day,” Dunia Ulloa, business supervisor of Copextel’s department within the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, informed IPS.
Tasks and incentives nonetheless fall short
About 95 % of Cuba’s electrical energy era depends on fossil fuels, which embody the pure gasoline produced with home oil, offshore oil rigs leased from Turkey, in addition to diesel and gasoline oil primarily based mills 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, based on official information.
On Mar. 14, Minister of Power 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 should be fulfilled, and the second by 2028. Each additionally has an extra 100 MW of storage capability, he stated.
Since 2014 Cuba has had a Coverage for the Improvement of Renewable Power Sources and their Environment friendly Use, and in 2019, Decree Regulation 345 established laws 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 change charge) the value per kWh from renewable sources delivered to the nationwide grid by unbiased producers in residential areas.
As well as, the laws waive for as much as eight years the tax on income for financial actors that perform electrical energy era initiatives with renewable vitality sources, and the customs tax on the importation of kit to that finish.
The outcomes are usually not very encouraging, pending extra engaging proposals for people to put money into inexperienced energies, so as to promote surplus electrical energy to the Cuban State.
The laws don’t exempt the import of those applied sciences for commercialization from customs duties: the associated fee is similar 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 basically search vitality self-sufficiency, that’s, to have electrical energy even throughout blackouts.
“Photo voltaic panels are the very best, there is no such thing as a gasoline price or noise. However they should be offered with actual incentives to ensure that extra individuals to put money into them,” entrepreneur Félix Morffi, 86, a former mid-level technician in equipment and gear restore and a tenacious advocate of unpolluted vitality alternatives, informed 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 protecting his family wants, the excess electrical energy he produces goes to the nationwide grid.
“An important ingredient is to offer credit score. Not everybody has the cash to purchase the gear. The opposite is to not get slowed down in purple tape, as a result of it scares individuals off. Banks should have individuals who deal solely with this situation, who’re skilled, and who need to get issues shifting. If that occurs, you will note how within the neighborhoods increasingly more individuals begin to put up panels,” stated Morffi.
In his view, “those that produce essentially the most ought to be acknowledged, maybe by giving them family home equipment, rising the charges paid to them for surplus vitality or protecting a part of the funding. In the long run, it’s a achieve for the nation and reduces gasoline bills.”
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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