ENERGY: Cuba Stakes Its Bets on Diversification

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

GUANTANAMO, Cuba, May 18 2004 (IPS) - Almost 100 years old, Cuba’s oldest hydropower dam is still functioning with its original equipment, and is a boon for a small neighbouring town that remains lit up when there is a nationwide power outage.

Inaugurated in 1917 in Guantánamo, Cuba’s easternmost province, the Guaso plant underwent restoration in the 1990s and produces 1.8 megawatts when operating at full capacity.

”The restoration has not yet been completed, but nevertheless the plant produced seven million kilowatt-hours in 2003, the highest production level in the past 35 years,” the director of the hydroelectric plant, Alfredo Torrealba, told IPS.

The electricity generated by the plant is fed into the national power grid. But the plant can also function independently, which benefits the nearly 3,000 residents of the nearby town of La Tagua during blackouts.

There is no more talk about an old project to build a large hydropower dam that would have generated 660 gigawatt-hours a year by harnessing the Duaba and Toa rivers, also located in the eastern part of this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million.

The project, which appears to have been definitively shelved, would have represented significant fuel savings for the country, but would also have caused environmental problems by flooding a vast forested area. The government chose instead to create numerous micro and small hydropower plants.

”It costs the country one million dollars to feed a megawatt into the national energy grid, while we have spent less than 70,000 dollars in restoring the equipment at the Guaso dam,” said Torrealba.

The province of Guantánamo, nearly 1,000 km from Havana, now has 70 small and medium hydropower plants, which basically supply electricity to towns and villages in the surrounding mountainous areas.

Nationwide, there are around 180 micro, small and medium dams, which produced more than 38 million kilowatt-hours in 2003, mainly to supply around 230 rural villages located far from the national power grid.

Between 26,000 and 30,000 people in rural areas obtain electricity from small hydropower plants, which experts say have shown themselves to be an in-depth, lasting, clean and environmentally healthy solution.

Specialised media consulted by IPS say the hydropower potential of this Caribbean island nation that only has one large river, the Toa, is more than sufficient to bring the number of communities supplied by that means of energy up to 400.

The sources estimate the country’s hydroelectric potential at around 350 megawatts, with an annual generating capacity of 700 gigawatt-hours, which would be equivalent to ceasing to use some 300,000 tons of conventional fuel in thermoelectric plants.

”The crux of what we want to do and are doing, as long as the conditions allow it, is to develop micro and small hydropower plants, which create practically no reservoir,” Emir Madruga, vice-president of the non-governmental organisation Cubasolar, which promotes the development of renewable, environmentally-friendly sources of energy, commented to IPS.

Small and micro hydropower dams improve the quality of the water that passes through their turbines, by oxygenating and circulating it, he said.

In the case of large dams, ”there will always be defenders and critics, but you have to find a way to benefit human beings without damaging the ecosystem, and the necessary engineering exists for that, although it is expensive,” said Madruga.

One of the world’s largest hydropower plants is located in Latin America: the Itaipú dam, which began to operate on the Paraná river on the border between Brazil and Paraguay in 1982.

In many regions of China, small dams are the main source of electricity.

Finding itself hard-pressed by Argentina’s cuts of natural gas exports, Chile is seeking to speed up the inauguration of the Ralco hydroelectric dam, on the upper course of the Bío Bío river. The construction of the dam has been staunchly resisted by Pehuenche indigenous communities and environmentalists.

According to projections, Ralco would increase the country’s electricity supplies by nine percent, and could begin to operate in June or July, depending on the amount of rainfall.

In April, Argentina decided to cut exports of natural gas to Chile by some 2.3 million cubic metres a day – a reduction of around 20 percent – which has mainly affected regions in northern Chile, that lack hydropower sources.

The situation triggered a debate on the need to diversify energy sources, an argument that according to analysts should be taken into account by all countries.

”Energy dependence is political and economic dependence, and if you are playing with players from another team, it can take back its players without notice, and leave you hanging,” said Madruga.

Oil remains the main source of energy in Cuba, although the reconversion of thermal plants has enabled the country to cover more than 90 percent of its domestic electricity needs with nationally produced crude oil.

In recent years, the Cuban government decided to accelerate development of renewable energy sources as part of a medium- to long-term strategy, with a view to achieving economic independence while protecting the environment.

The sources of energy that are being developed are biomass and hydropower, as well as wind and solar energy, with which some 100,000 dwellings in remote, isolated regions are to be electrified within the next few years.