HAVANA, Sep 23 (IPS) – After creating a fashion for a sun heater, putting in sun panels and developing a tool to dehydrate meals with the assistance of the solar, Félix Morffi is popping his house into an area for the manufacturing and promotion of renewable energies in Cuba.
With two tanks, glass, aluminum sheets, in addition to cinderblocks, sand and cement, the 84-year-old retiree created, in 2006, a sun heater that meets his family wishes, which he proudly shows.
“You construct it these days and day after today you’ve got scorching water; any individual can do it, and if they’ve a little of recommendation, the entire higher,” mentioned the retired mid-level gadget and gear restore technician.
A magnet magnetically treats the water by the use of a gadget that purifies it and makes it fit to be eaten, with out further power prices.
Additionally at the roof of the home, a cluster of 16 photovoltaic panels imported in 2019 supply 5 kilowatts of energy (kWp) and reinforce the paintings of his small automobile restore store the place he works on cars for state-owned corporations and personal folks.
That is an unbiased endeavor performed by way of Morffi on a part of his land in Regla, probably the most 15 municipalities that make up Havana.
Along with overlaying his circle of relatives’s family wishes, he supplies his surplus electrical energy to the nationwide grid, the Nationwide Electrical Energy Gadget (SEN).
As a part of a freelance with the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba beneath the Ministry of Power and Mines, for the excess power “we obtain a mean of greater than 2,000 pesos a month (about 83 bucks on the respectable fee), kind of the volume we pay for our intake all through the similar duration,” Morffi advised IPS in an interview at his house.
However he mentioned that the velocity of 12.5 cents in step with kilowatt of power dropped at the SEN in all probability must be greater if the federal government needs extra other people to provide solar power.
Since 2014, Cuba has had a Coverage for the Construction of Renewable Power Resources and their Environment friendly Use, and in 2019, Decree Legislation 345 established rules to extend the percentage of renewables in electrical energy technology and continuously lower the percentage represented by way of fossil fuels.
Different rules had been added, equivalent to the one who exempts international corporations that perform sustainable electrical energy technology initiatives from paying taxes on income for 8 years.
Different choices search to inspire self-sufficiency via decentralized technology with the sale of surplus power to the SEN, in addition to tariff exemptions to import photovoltaic methods, their portions and parts for non-commercial functions.
Nice sun attainable
Consistent with research, Cuba receives a mean sun radiation of greater than 5 kilowatts in step with sq. meter in step with day, regarded as to be a top point. There may be monumental attainable on this archipelago of greater than 110,800 sq. kilometers which has an annual moderate of 330 sunny days.
Via the tip of 2021, some 500 million bucks have been invested in increasing the percentage within the power mixture of sun, wind, biomass and hydroelectric assets, in step with knowledge from the Ministry of Power and Mines.
The solar power program seems to be probably the most complex and with the most productive alternatives for enlargement.
The sun parks working within the nation give a contribution 238 megawatts, greater than 75 % of the renewable power produced in the community.
As well as, greater than 160,000 of the country’s 3.9 million houses, most commonly in far off mountainous spaces, obtain electrical energy from sun modules, statistics display.
However blank assets account for slightly 5 % of the island’s electrical energy technology, an outlook that the government need to radically become, environment an bold purpose of 37 % by way of 2030.
This is a subject of nationwide safety to considerably alter the power combine in Cuba, which is very depending on fossil gasoline imports and hit by way of cyclical power shortages.
The island is within the grip of an power disaster with blackouts of as much as 12 hours or extra in some spaces, because of the deterioration of the community of 20 thermoelectric technology blocks with a mean working lifetime of 30 years and short of common upkeep.
Added to that is the upward push within the global costs of diesel and gasoline oil, in addition to the dearth of portions to stay the engines and turbines powered by way of those fuels operational in Cuba’s 168 municipalities.
Hanging at the brakes
Govt government level to the U.S. embargo as an element protecting again the expansion of renewable energies, blaming it for discouraging attainable traders and hindering the acquisition of recent parts and applied sciences.
Then again, inflation, the partial dollarization of the economic system and the extreme scarcity of fundamental must haves, together with meals, depart maximum households with out many choices for turning to the self sufficient manufacturing of fresh power, despite the fact that they acknowledge its certain environmental affect.
One of the vital licensed state-owned corporations markets and assembles 1.0 kWp sun panel methods for the similar of about 2,300 bucks in a rustic the place the typical per month wage is estimated at 160 bucks, even supposing it’s imaginable to use for a financial institution mortgage for his or her set up.
Individuals who spoke to IPS additionally discussed the difficulties in storing up solar power to be used at night time, all through blackouts or on cloudy or wet days, making an allowance for the very top worth of batteries.
Morffi mentioned extra coaching is wanted amongst team of workers curious about a number of processes, and he cited delays of greater than a yr between the signing of the contract with Unión Eléctrica and the start of cost for the power surpluses contributed to the SEN, in addition to “inconsistency with recognize to the meeting” of the apparatus.
Despite the fact that there’s a nationwide coverage on renewable power assets, “there’s nonetheless numerous lack of knowledge and little or no want to do issues, and do them neatly. Consciousness-raising is wanted,” he argued.
Combining renewable energies
Morffi believes that in spite of the industrial stipulations, with slightly ingenuity other people can benefit from the herbal parts, as a result of “the solar shines for everybody; the air is there and prices you not anything, however your wealth is for your mind.”
He presentations a dryer that makes use of the warmth of the solar to dehydrate end result, spices and tubers, which he assembled most commonly with recycled merchandise equivalent to items of wooden, nylon, acrylic and aluminum sheets.
Different apparatus would require an important funding, equivalent to the 3 small wind generators of 0.5 kWp every that he plans to import and a brand new batch of four.0 kWp photovoltaic sun panels, for which he must practice for a financial institution mortgage.
In the back of his space, a small sun panel helps to keep the water flowing from a neatly for his barnyard bird and a synthetic pond protecting plenty of decorative fish in addition to tilapia for the circle of relatives to devour.
The development of a small biodigester, about 4 cubic meters in measurement, could also be at a complicated level on his land, aimed toward the usage of methane fuel from the decomposition of animal manure, for cooking.
Consistent with Morffi, who manages those actions with the reinforce of a number of members of the family, his house is on its solution to turning into an experimental website for the usage of renewable energies.
A specialised lecture room could also be constructed there, in order that scholars can be informed in regards to the matter in situ.
Up to now within the design segment and in discussions with attainable supporters, this native construction mission may even set up “sun warmers in puts in the neighborhood such because the physician’s place of work, an afternoon middle and a cafeteria for the aged,” mentioned Morffi.
He mentioned the theory must obtain reinforce from global donors, the federal government of the municipality of Regla, and Cubasolar, a non-governmental affiliation devoted to the promotion of renewable assets and recognize for the surroundings, of which Morffi has been a member since 2004.
“We’re keen to advise any individual who needs to put in sun panels, warmers or dryers, the whole thing associated with renewable energies. We now have wisdom and revel in and feature one thing to give a contribution,” he mentioned.
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