Cuba opens second solar farm of 2013

HAVANA – Cuba inaugurated a 5,200-panel solar farm in the central city of Santa Clara [last] week, the second such facility installed this year on the island, the official press reported Thursday.

The farm, which will be able to supply some 750 homes daily, will have a generating capacity of 962 KW once it is fully operating.

The chief specialist working on the project, Sergio Salazar, said the solar farm in Santa Clara, 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of Havana, would save Cuba some 380 tons of crude annually.

Another 14,100-panel, Cuban-built solar farm was inaugurated in April in the south-central region of Cienfuegos.

Between April and July, the Cienfuegos plant, known as Cantarrana, saved the island some 145 tons of fossil fuel, avoided the emission of 380 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and produced electricity equivalent to the daily consumption of 780 households.

According to official projections, five more solar farms are to begin operating in the coming months in the provinces of La Habana, Guantanamo, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba and Isla de la Juventud.

A total of 4 percent of Cuba’s electricity comes from renewable sources.

The Caribbean nation only had some 9,000 photovoltaic panels until 2013, most of which were used to supply electricity to schools and hospitals in rural areas.

(By EFE from the Latin American Herald Tribune)