[Excerpt from a longer article in the February 16-29, 2024 edition of People’s Voice]
Currently, 95 percent of electrical energy production in Cuba is based on fossil fuel use. This presents a significant enough challenge to the country as it tries to transition away from carbon emissions. But add in the fact that Cuba has to import huge amounts of oil, and that these imports are severely affected by the six-decade US blockade, and both the task and the urgency become nearly overwhelming.
However, in this as in countless other areas, Cuba is facing the test with all of the determination, unity, planning and progressive thinking that typifies its socialist society.
The country recently announced an ambitious plan to rapidly and comprehensively transform its energy production, so that 29 percent of electricity is produced from renewable sources in 2030 and 100 percent by 2050.
In the process, Cuban companies will themselves be transformed from consumers of energy (especially oil) into autonomous generators of electricity using renewable sources. Several state enterprises have already successfully begun this transition and are contributing to the National Electric System (SEN).
Alongside the shift to renewables, the plan involves transitioning to domestic energy sources in order to achieve what the Cuban government calls “total energy sovereignty.” The government says that this goal of energy sovereignty must be achieved during the decade of the 2030s.
Ramsés Montes Calzadilla, director of Energy Policy and Strategy at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, explains the critical importance of this plan. “The demand for energy in Cuba is not satisfied due to our dependence on fossil fuels, mostly imported, which significantly affects the national economy and the quality of life of the population, in addition to negatively impacting the environment, through the burning of hydrocarbons and the subsequent emission of carbon dioxide.”
By PV staff, with files from Granma
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