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ENERGY-CUBA: Looking to Windward

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Apr 3 2007 (IPS) - Cuba is interested in developing wind power and other renewable energy sources to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity, without setting aside its hopes for new oil finds.

“The main thing is to diversify energy sources. There is no single solution,” wind energy expert Conrado Moreno, of the Renewable Energy Technologies Study Centre (CETER) at the José Antonio Echevarría Higher Polytechnic Institute (CUJAE) in Havana, told IPS.

Wind power could become the second most important energy source in the country, Moreno said, although he preferred not to describe its potential in precise figures, as it is still the subject of research.

Until the 1990s, hardly anyone in Cuba was talking about wind energy, except academic circles and a few professionals. “They called us dreamers, and the worst thing was that the prevailing opinion was that there wasn’t enough wind here to generate electricity,” Moreno said.

But high oil prices and the power crisis of 2004, which caused frequent and extensive blackouts, brought about a comprehensive assessment which led to a change of focus that opened the way to designing a strategy for harnessing wind power.

The virtual collapse of the power grid was due to obsolescence and deterioration of the thermoelectric power stations, and a total breakdown at the Guiteras plant, the main electricity station in the country.

The wind prospecting programme began in 1991, and a map of the island was produced showing the most promising sites for wind farms. Anemometers (wind speed indicators) have been placed at these sites to measure and record their potential.

A model wind farm producing 0.45 megawatts of electricity was installed in 1999, in Turiguanó, in the province of Ciego de Ávila, 434 kilometres east of Havana. This February, a larger wind farm was inaugurated on Isla de la Juventud.

The six French-made wind turbines that are now part of the landscape on the second largest island of the Cuban archipelago has a capacity of 1.65 megawatts of electricity, close to 10 percent of peak hour demand in this municipality southwest of Cuba.

A third wind farm, with six wind turbines and a capacity of 5.1 megawatts, is expected to come onstream in the first half of this year in Gibara, located on the coast north of Holguín, 689 kilometres east of the capital.

Another wind farm is planned for the same area, which will raise the total capacity at Gibara to 9.5 megawatts. This output will be fed into the national grid on an experimental basis.

One of the greatest advantages of wind power (apart from its fuel being cost-free) is that it is non-polluting. According to the calculations of experts, each kilowatt generated by wind power, rather than by a thermal power station, saves one kilogram of carbon dioxide emissions from being released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

However, environmentalists are concerned that the wind turbines could harm migrating birds. “The environmental impact studies carried out before a wind farm is installed include analysis of this and many other aspects. For instance, it’s important not to interfere with communications,” Moreno said.

Other experts have pointed out the advantage that wind turbines can be placed on land unsuitable for other purposes, like deserts, along the coastline, or arid slopes too steep for agriculture.

They can also occupy land in productive use, such as pastures or low-growing crops like wheat, maize, potatoes or beetroot.

Wind energy is shaping up as one of the fastest growing energy sources in the world today. According to statistics from the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA), installed wind power capacity grew ten-fold between 1997 and 2006.

The WWEA said that Brazil was the country where wind power grew most rapidly during 2006. By adding 208 megawatts of installed capacity, Brazil increased its wind energy capacity seven-fold in just one year.

Germany is the largest wind power producer in the world, with a capacity of 20,622 megawatts, followed by Spain and the United States, with over 11,000 megawatts each.

Havana will be hosting an international conference on renewable energy from May 22 to 25, at which the possibilities for cooperation in this field will be analysed.

Cuba also generates electricity from sugarcane biomass (bagasse), from small hydroelectric stations, and from photovoltaic cells which use light from the sun. But electricity generation remains primarily dependent on fossil fuels.

In 2007, 39 new wells will be drilled in areas of Cuba where oil has already been found. Crude production is expected to climb by 100,000 tons.

Cuba produced about 3.9 million tons of oil and gas in 2006, equivalent to nearly half of its domestic consumption needs. The rest is imported.

A substantial increase in the quantity and quality of crude depends on future finds in the Cuban sector of the Gulf of Mexico, where 59 blocks have been put out to tender. So far only 16 blocks have been taken up, and negotiations are under way for another eight.