Cuba to Increase Electric Power Generation by 2030

A change in the electric power matrix will allow Cuba to increase its own energy production from 4 to 24 percent of the total by 2030, said an expert from the Cuban Energy and Mining Ministry on Wednesday.

Ramsés Montes, the Ministry director, in an interview with Prensa Latina, said that this transformation will be possible due to an increase in the use of renewable energy, which together with previous Cuban energy sources will ensure the generation of 7,245 gigawatts in the year 2030.

Montes, who is taking part in the 7th Latin-American and Caribbean Seminar of Energy Efficiencyin Uruguay, stated that this increase will concentrate on three sources of renewable energy.

He mentioned that bio-electricity companies will generate electricity from the biomass from cane. Nine-teen facilities of this type will be constructed and will produce 755 megawatts.

Another program is the use of wind power. Cuban plans to construct 13 wind parks that will generate 633 megawatts.

A program to use Photovoltaic solar energy plants will produce 700 megawatts at several facilities distributed throughout the country.

As part of the policy for the development of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency approved in 2014, it was agreed that 74 hydroelectric small plants that will generate 56 megawatts would also be constructed.

"Our country does not have much potential for the development of hydraulic power," Montes pointed out.

He also said that construction has already began and work has started on financing the project, which will most likely be linked to the new foreign investment law.

The Director of Strategy and Politics of the Ministry of Energy and Mines stated that the country has identified what it is going to do and is on schedule for 2030.

The country also plans to gradually introduce LED lighting and as such intends to sell about 13 million LED lamps to the residential sector.

LED lamps consume about 50 per cent of the energy of current lamps.

The government also plans to introduce induction cookers to replace those with coils which will represent energy savings of 30 percent.

Commenting on programs introduced in 2006 in Cuba as part of the so-called Energy for the Revolution, the young Cuban engineer underlined that they had all had a favorable impact from the point of view of the energy efficiency.

He also stated the Gross Domestic Product of the last years few years has increased "with the same energy consumption or 0,6 per cent less".