Residences, businesses and solar panels

On Tuesday, March 16, Jorge Cepero Hernández, director of Cuba’s Electricity Union (UNE), said that “Renewable sources of energy [will be] indisputably the future and the fundamental basis of the country’s generation [of power].”

He added that they currently produce 4.5 percent of the total energy generated, but this will be the fastest growing sector in order to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. (The country imports about 2.5 million tons of fuel, which means large expenditures for the country.)

So far, only solar energy panels have been installed in homes apart from the rural and mountainous areas. It’s a meritorious decision. But…

Here’s a valid question: Why not allow individuals (in residential areas) or private enterprises to acquire solar panels according to their needs? Currently only the purchase of panels for water heaters is allowed.

Wouldn’t this be another way of turning us away from fossil fuels? And would not these sectors be saving for the national network their extra accumulated [energy]?