Ecobreves – CUBA: Peasant Farmers Go Solar

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

HAVANA, Feb 4 2006 (IPS) - – More than 40 farming families in Valle de Viñales, in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Río, have been illuminating their homes with solar panels since the end of January. “It was the best alternative. The homes are very far flung, and the towers of the national electricity network are not compatible with the local landscape,” Alberto Pérez, a United Nations informaton officer in Cuba, told Tierramérica.

This type of electrical supply is planned for an additional 118 homes in Viñales, of some 10,000 inhabitants and one of the 36 protected areas in Pinar del Rio.

Sponsoring the program are the French energy company Total, the French Fund for the Global Environment, the Cuban government and the United Nations Development Program, said Pérez.