Preschool teacher Iris Mejías and her husband Alexis García, a retired university professor, stand next to the geomembrane biodigester that since December 2023 provides about four cubic meters of biogas daily for their agricultural activities and the needs of their home in the semi-urban neighborhood of Sierra Maestra, in the municipality of Boyeros on the south side of Havana. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Apr 26 2024 (IPS)

Just to obtain a good fertilizer it was worth building a biodigester, says Cuban farmer Alexis García, who proudly shows the vegetables in his family’s garden, as well as the wide variety of fruit trees that have benefited from biol, the end product of biogas technology.

García and his wife Iris Mejías organically grow all the agricultural products that make them self-sufficient, on the land around their home in the semi-urban neighborhood of Sierra Maestra, in the municipality of Boyeros on the south side of Havana.“We need a greater culture and awareness about renewable energies. There is resistance among some places and people. On the other hand, there are the high prices which do not foment the rapid expansion of technologies and equipment.” -- Alexis García

“I used to use a little urea, but because of the economic situation it has become very difficult to import this and other fertilizers. The bioproducts are an opportunity to make up for that shortage and, in some cases, function as pesticides,” García, a 62-year-old retired university professor who is now dedicated to his crops, told IPS.

Biol is the liquid effluent with a certain degree of stabilization that comes out of the biodigester, once the process of anaerobic digestion of organic matter, which includes animal manure, crop waste and/or liquid waste, has been completed. It is rich in nutrients for crops and for restoring soil through fertigation.

García pointed out that the challenges of obtaining energy and the need to process manure prompted the installation of the geomembrane biodigester, which as of December 2023 provides about four cubic meters of biogas per day.

This is one of the three types of biodigesters most used at a small and medium scale in Cuba, together with the mobile type, also known as the Indian model, and the fixed dome or Chinese biodigester.

“I had read a little about it and wanted to have a biodigester. With some savings we decided to start building one. In addition to the support of our sons Alexis and Alexei, we had the backing and advice of José Antonio Guardado,” coordinator of the Biogas Users Movement (MUB), said García.

Founded in 1983, the MUB brings together some 3,000 farmers who use this technology in this Caribbean island nation of 11 million people.

Preschool teacher Iris Mejías uses biogas to cook food, which gives her autonomy, saves money and improves the quality of life in her home in the south of the Cuban capital. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Biogas opportunities

Mejías, 59, said that “with biogas you lose the fear of not having enough fuel for cooking. It provides security.”

Meiías, a teachers at a preschool for the young children of working mothers, says that when the economic crisis became more severe in the 1990s, she cooked with firewood, charcoal, kerosene and even coconut shells to prepare her family’s daily meals.

“If you cook with electrical equipment, you depend on the power supply, or if you have a gas cylinder (liquefied petroleum gas), you worry that it will run out and you won’t have a spare. In both cases the biodigester saves money,” she said.

Mejías said it is easier to cook food for domestic animals and heat water “without smut or smoke that makes it necessary to wash your hair every day or makes it difficult to take care of your hands.”

Studies show that methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with a warming power 80 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Proper management of the biological methane resulting from the decomposition of agricultural residues and manure can generate value and be a cost-effective solution to avoid water and soil contamination.

Therefore, its extraction and use as energy, especially in rural and semi-urban environments, can be a solution to reduce electricity consumption and help combat climate change.

According to García, the island could receive greater energy benefits if there were clear incentives for the installation of biodigesters.

Although the acute domestic economic crisis has had a very negative impact on the national swine and cattle herd, “many dairies and pig farms do not know what to do with the daily output of manure. In fact, our biodigester is fed from nearby facilities where it is piled up and they give it to us for free,” he said.

Alexis García dries coffee beans next to solar panels installed on the roof of his house in southern Havana. The possibility of storing energy with the back-up of recovered batteries provides the family with approximately three hours of autonomy during blackouts. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Other incentives

Cuba has a biogas production potential of 615,595 cubic meters per year from agricultural and industrial production, according to the Bioenergy Atlas 2022.

That volume represents 189,227 tons of oil equivalent per year or 710,095 megawatt hours (MWh) per year. Of the total, 63 percent comes from agricultural production, he said.

In García’s opinion, Cuba’s rural environment “is in a better position to achieve the desired energy independence. But economic facilities would be necessary, such as loans for the construction of biodigesters, bonuses for people to produce that energy and access to buy lamps, pots and even refrigerators that use biogas.”

Of Cuba’s 11 million inhabitants, about 23 percent, some 2.3 million people, live in rural areas, according to official statistics.

On the other hand, it is estimated that there are some 5,000 biodigesters on the island, although conservative estimates by specialists consider it possible to expand the network to 20,000 family units.

Experts argue that the direct use of biogas is more efficient than transforming it into electricity.

A significant percentage of Cuba’s four million households use electricity as the main energy source for cooking and heating water for bathing, which represents about 40 percent of consumption.

Cuba is a country highly dependent on fuel imports.

During the last five years, in parallel to the deterioration of the domestic economic situation, the decline of the main sources of foreign currency and the strengthening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have faced increasing difficulties in meeting the demand for fuel.

About 95 percent of Cuba’s electricity generation relies on fossil fuels. The government aims to increase clean sources from the current five percent to around 30 percent of electricity generation by 2030.

“Imagine what it would mean if not all, at least most of the houses in the Cuban countryside had a biodigester or solar panels. Any strategy that encourages independence from the national power grid, or that provides energy, would be very positive,” said García.

In recent years, the international Biomas-Cuba project (2009-2022) focused on helping to understand the importance of renewable energy sources in rural environments, the role of on-farm biodigesters and waste treatment systems in swine facilities.

The initiative, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude), was coordinated by the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station, a research center attached to the University of the western province of Matanzas, and involved related institutions in several of the country’s 15 provinces.

Ministerial Order 395 of the Ministry of Energy and Mines of 2021 stipulated that each of Cuba’s 168 municipalities must have a biogas development program and strategy, and coordinate its management and implementation with their respective provinces.

In addition, the non-governmental Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (Cubasolar), together with the MUB, encourages training workshops and the advice of specialists.

Banana clusters can be seen growing in the backyard of the García-Mejías home in southern Havana. Both the vegetables in the nursery and the fruit trees benefit from biol, the end product of biogas technology, which provides fertilizer. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Moving towards energy independence

One of the aspirations of the García-Mejías family is to achieve energy sustainability for their home and agricultural production.

“We foresee the construction of a second biodigester, but this one will have a mobile dome, which should provide two cubic meters of biogas per day, but much more efficiently, and with a higher pressure. With a higher volume we can benefit some neighbors,” García said.

On the roof of their house, six 720-watt solar panels backed up by recovered batteries give them autonomy of approximately three hours of electricity in the event of a power failure.

“We plan to install a wind turbine, as well as a solar heater made of plastic pipes. We want to set up a demonstration area in the house to show the advantages of renewable energies and demonstrate how everything we do is done using these energy sources,” said the former professor.

“We need a greater culture and awareness about renewable energies. There is resistance among some places and people. On the other hand, there are the high prices which do not foment the rapid expansion of technologies and equipment,” García said when IPS asked him in his home about the obstacles to increasing the household use of renewables.

“People hear about the biodigester and think it’s difficult. It takes a little work, but then the benefits are many. There is a lack of information in the media. People come to us looking for help in building biodigesters. We also receive students, which opens up an opportunity for the new generations to grow up with the culture of using nature in a sustainable way,” he added.

Solar panels line the rooftop of the home of Cuban entrepreneur Felix Morffi, in the municipality of Regla, Havana. Large consumers in the residential sector could find in the installation of solar panels a way to offset the amount of their energy bill through cogeneration for self-consumption or receive a payment for injecting clean energy into the national power grid. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Apr 17 2024 (IPS)

With a bolder policy and flexible payment mechanisms, perhaps Alexis Rodríguez would have opted for solar panels for his home, instead of the portable generator that has made it possible for him to weather the frequent blackouts caused by Cuba’s recurrent energy crises.

“It’s a little noisy, the fuel is expensive, but I can tolerate one and solve the other. What is intolerable is for my family and I to spend nights and early mornings without electricity, without rest, suffering the heat and mosquitoes, and with the risk of the food in our fridge spoiling,” the barber, who lives in the eastern city of Holguín, told IPS."Solar panels are the best, there is no fuel cost or noise. But they need to be sold with real incentives in order for more people to invest in them." -- Félix Morffi

Rodríguez shelled out 850 dollars a few months ago for a 2500 watt (W) gasoline-powered generator.

Marileydis Pérez, a homemaker in Batabanó south of Havana, received a 900 W generator from her son, who sent it from his home in the United States, “to run the fans, the television and turn on the lights on blackout nights.”

Pérez told IPS that although the government created a system of shifts for the sale of gasoline, “just five liters” for those who have registered generators, “I have only been able to buy it that way once in two years.” As a result, she resorts to the black market for gasoline.

Highly dependent on fuel imports, Cuba consumes more than eight million tons annually, of which almost 40 percent is covered by heavy domestic crude oil with a high sulfur content, used mainly in thermoelectric generation.

During the last five years, along with the deterioration of the domestic economic situation, the fall of the main sources of foreign currency and the tightening of the U.S. embargo, the authorities have faced increasing difficulties in meeting fuel demand.

An update of retail prices in the domestic market led to an increase of more than 400 percent in sales rates since Mar. 1.

The price of a liter of regular gasoline climbed from 25 to 132 Cuban pesos (equivalent to 1.10 dollars at the official rate). The same was true for regular diesel.

On the black market, a liter of regular gasoline costs 250 to 300 pesos, or 0.70 to 0.85 cents on the dollar, taking into account the exchange rate parallel to the government’s.

In this country of 11 million inhabitants, the average monthly salary is equivalent to about 40 dollars, which amounts to around 14 dollars in the informal reference market for a significant number of products, goods and services to which families have access in order to satisfy their basic needs.

The problems facing the energy supply have fuelled the importation of generators, as well as their sale on the black market. Government-owned stores that only take foreign currency also sell them at very high prices, far beyond the reach of most families.

An extension for the non-commercial import of up to two generators that produce more than 900 W has been in place since 2022.

A man starts up a gasoline-powered generator in the town of Batabanó, Mayabeque province, Cuba. The country’s energy problems have fuelled the importation of portable generators in the face of the frequent power cuts caused by the energy crisis in this Caribbean island nation. CREDIT: Luis Brizuela / IPS

Barriers

People who spoke to IPS expressed misgivings about the use of generators because they are noisy.

They pointed out that they are not always placed outside the houses or in ventilated rooms so that toxic combustion gases can escape and overheating can be avoided.

When IPS asked about the possibility of solar panels, Pérez said that “in addition to being very difficult to find outside Havana, they usually come without batteries, and if they are brought in, they cost half a million pesos (about 4200 dollars at the official exchange rate).”

When the public corporation Copextel, in charge of marketing and after-sales services, began to sell them in late 2021, “they were at 55,000 pesos” (2,300 dollars at the official exchange rate at the time), unaffordable for anyone who depends on their wages or on a pension,” said Rodríguez.

The price covered the purchase, transportation, installation and assembly of the panels and inverters by the company’s technicians.

“I spend less than 200 pesos on electricity a month. With what a solar panel costs I can pay for electricity for more than 20 years,” added Rodríguez.

Another hurdle for the expansion of solar power in the residential sector lies in the electricity tariff subsidy, which is charged in a devalued currency.
According to official figures, around six percent of the more than four million households in Cuba consume more than 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) per month. Above that threshold, the electricity tariff was increased by 25 percent since March to eliminate subsidies.

By installing solar panels, this segment of the population could find a way to offset the amount of the bill through cogeneration for self-consumption or receive a payment for injecting clean energy into the national grid.

“Those who have mainly purchased the panels are people with high incomes, especially owners of hostels and rental houses. It makes it possible for them to provide air conditioning in rooms for tourists and other services during the day,” Dunia Ulloa, commercial manager of Copextel’s branch in the Havana municipality of Plaza de la Revolución, told IPS.

Two people use the flashlight of a cell phone during a blackout in Havana. The government hopes that, from the current five percent, renewable sources will account for around 30 percent of electricity generation by 2030, in order to strengthen national energy security. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Projects and incentives still fall short

About 95 percent of Cuba’s electricity generation relies on fossil fuels, which include the natural gas produced with domestic oil, offshore oil rigs leased from Turkey, as well as diesel and fuel oil based generators and engines.

The government aims for renewables to account for around 30 percent of electricity generation by 2030, up from the current five percent.

With an installed capacity of 260 megawatts (MW), the solar parks installed in this Caribbean country represented two percent of annual electricity generation at the end of 2023, according to official data.

On Mar. 14, Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy reported that two contracts had been signed for the installation of 92 solar parks in all provinces, with a potential of 2000 MW.

By May 2025, the first of the 1,000 MW contracts must be fulfilled, and the second by 2028. Each one also has an additional 100 MW of storage capacity, he said.

Since 2014 Cuba has had a Policy for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources and their Efficient Use, and in 2019, Decree Law 345 established regulations to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix and gradually decrease consumption of fossil fuels.

In 2023 the Ministry of Finance and Prices issued Resolution 238 which doubled to six pesos (0.05 cents of a dollar at the official exchange rate) the price per kWh from renewable sources delivered to the national grid by independent producers in residential areas.

In addition, the regulations waive for up to eight years the tax on profits for economic actors that carry out electricity generation projects with renewable energy sources, and the customs tax on the importation of equipment to that end.

The results are not very encouraging, pending more attractive proposals for individuals to invest in green energies, in order to sell surplus electricity to the Cuban State.

The regulations do not exempt the import of these technologies for commercialization from customs duties: the cost is the same for materials or equipment, whether they are beneficial or detrimental to energy consumption.

Unlike other countries where people make a living from selling clean energy, in Cuba those who install solar panels essentially seek energy self-sufficiency, that is, to have electric power even during blackouts.

“Solar panels are the best, there is no fuel cost or noise. But they need to be sold with real incentives in order for more people to invest in them,” entrepreneur Félix Morffi, 86, a former mid-level technician in machinery and tool repair and a tenacious advocate of clean energy opportunities, told IPS.

A group of 36 solar panels on the roof of his house provide 10 kWh to support the work of his automotive repair shop, an autonomous enterprise built by Morffi next to his house in the municipality of Regla, in the Cuban capital.

After covering his household needs, the surplus electricity he produces goes to the national grid.

“An essential element is to provide credit. Not everyone has the money to buy the equipment. The other is to not get bogged down in red tape, because it scares people off. Banks must have people who deal only with this issue, who are trained, and who want to get things moving. If that happens, you will see how in the neighborhoods more and more people start to put up panels,” said Morffi.

In his view, “those who produce the most should be recognized, perhaps by giving them household appliances, increasing the rates paid to them for surplus energy or covering part of the investment. In the end, it is a gain for the country and reduces fuel expenses.”

Passengers board a public bus in Havana. In recent years, some 40 hybrid buses (alternating diesel and electricity), a technology that saves 25 to 30 percent of fuel and generates less pollution, have been added to public transport in the Cuban capital. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Feb 5 2024 (IPS)

Jorge Sarmientos said he made a good investment when he bought an electric motorcycle to get around and avoid the anxiety suffered by the users of Cuba’s deficient public transportation system or the high prices of private alternatives.

“It was expensive, but I gained independence,” Sarmientos, a Havana-based accountant, told IPS. “Transportation has never been good here. When there is no shortage of buses, there are shortages of spare parts or fuel. Prices should be lowered or there should be facilities for more people to acquire electric vehicles.”"Transportation has never been good here. When there is no shortage of buses, there are shortages of spare parts or fuel. Prices should be lowered or there should be facilities for more people to acquire electric vehicles." -- Jorge Sarmientos

Official data indicate that half a million electric motorcycles are on the roads in this Caribbean island nation of 11 million inhabitants, a form of transportation that helps people and families get around.

Over the last decade, the use of electric vehicles has increased in Cuba, based on customs authorizations for their importation.

More recently, the domestic industry has begun to assemble different models, including electric bicycles and three-wheelers, using parts imported largely from China.

But the fact that they are mainly sold in foreign currency is a hurdle to expanding sales.

The cheapest models in state-owned stores exceed 1,000 dollars, while others go for as much as 6,000 dollars.

In Cuba, the average monthly salary is equivalent to about 35 dollars according to the official exchange rate, or about 16 dollars in the informal market.

According to reports, almost 40 hybrid buses (alternating diesel and electricity) have been added to Havana’s deteriorated fleet of public buses in recent years, a technology that saves 25 to 30 percent of fuel and is less polluting.

But the severe internal economic crisis and the shortage of foreign currency are hindering actions to increase the number of 100 percent electric vehicles in order to gradually decarbonize public transportation.

Some companies and institutions have acquired electric cars, which bring reductions in maintenance costs.

Electric three-wheelers or ecotaxis help alleviate transportation problems in the municipality of Boyeros, one of the 15 that make up the Cuban capital. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Local solutions

In the case of Havana, from 2019 to 2023 the Neomovilidad project was implemented, which among its objectives aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an efficient transition to a low-emission urban transportation system.

In addition to prioritizing variables such as a gender approach and the inclusion of different age groups, the project provided a pilot public bicycle rental station, run by a local development project led by young people.

It also created three routes of three-wheeled electric ecotaxis driven mainly by women in outlying neighborhoods of Boyeros, one of the 15 municipalities that make up Havana.

The three-wheelers are light, motorized vehicles with a capacity for six passengers in the back, similar to the autorickshaws or tuktuks that are common in Asia. Here they are also called motocarros or mototaxis.

“I think they are a great option for getting around quickly over short distances, and at affordable prices,” retiree Gloria Almaguer, a resident of the Fontanar neighborhood in Boyeros, told IPS. “The bad thing is that there are not enough to cover demand, they can carry only a few people, and there are certain times of day when they ‘vanish’.”

The Neomovilidad project was executed by Havana’s General Directorate of Transportation, implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Cuba and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Other fleets of ecotaxis provide service in the capital’s municipalities of Old Havana, Central Havana, Guanabacoa, Playa and Plaza de la Revolución, also with UNDP support. These are all initiatives that contribute to the national commitment to mitigate climate change.

With routes ranging from two to four kilometers and low prices, a little more than a hundred of these vehicles help provide a solution for sustainable micro-mobility in urban areas.

In other Cuban cities, similar three wheelers with internal combustion engines are in service.

One challenge is that the vast majority of ecotaxis and electric vehicles depend on the national electric grid to recharge their batteries. The ecotaxis recharge during the night at their terminals in the parking lots of public entities, and privately owned vehicles do so at their owners’ homes.

This is because so far there is no infrastructure that would allow electric vehicles to be recharged in a network of service stations.

Around 95 percent of Cuba’s electricity generation relies on fossil fuels.

The government considers it a matter of national security to transform the energy mix, and aims for more than 30 percent of electricity to come from clean energies by 2030, a goal that will be difficult to achieve due to the need for a high level of investment.

Passengers try to board an old vehicle operating as a private cab in Havana. In the Cuban capital, around 25 percent of the estimated total number of passengers resort to private cabs with fixed routes, known as almendrones, which are heavy consumers of gasoline or diesel and are not affordable to everyone. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

New fuel prices

A majority of the Cuban population depends on the public transportation system, based mainly on buses and other fossil fuel-consuming vehicles.

In Havana, home to 2.1 million inhabitants, “less than 300 buses are working, a city that in the 1980s had 2,500 buses and only four years ago had 600,” said Transport Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila during a television appearance in October 2023.

The greatest impact falls on those with the lowest purchasing power, since buses are the most affordable means of transportation.

The panorama is similar in Cuba’s other 14 provinces. Alternative transport in urban, suburban and rural settlements includes modified trucks, traditional horse-drawn carriages and bicycle cabs which carry one or two passengers and are pedaled by the driver.

In Havana, estimates place the total number of passengers who use private transport at around 25 percent, generally in old U.S.-made cars, the so-called “almendrones” – private cabs with fixed routes – which run on gasoline or diesel and are not affordable for everyone.

Together with the deterioration of the vehicle fleet, the chronic shortage of spare parts, lubricants and other supplies, and the migration of drivers to sectors with greater economic benefits, the fuel shortage has been one of the main causes of the irregular public transportation service, which has been accentuated in the last five years.

“You can spend an hour waiting, or more. A lot of times I’m late for class, even though I get up very early. I can’t afford a private car every day. It’s increasingly difficult to get anywhere,” stressed architecture student Yenia Hernández in an interview with IPS, as she waited at a bus stop with dozens of other people in the Central Havana municipality.

A train travels along a railroad track in Cuba’s capital. A majority of the population depends on the public transportation system, based mainly on buses, trucks and trains, which consume fossil fuels. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Energy crises have become more recurrent since 2019, in parallel with the decline of the domestic economic situation and the lack of foreign currency.

According to the authorities, this situation has multiple causes, from breach of contract by suppliers to U.S. government sanctions that hinder access to credit and services from international banks.

In 2021 Cuba imported 126,000 tons of gasoline, in 2022 some 192,000 tons, and in 2023 around 203,000 tons. Despite the increase, the figure remains below the demand of about 360,000 tons, Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a televised statement on Jan. 8.

On the other hand, this island nation needs 1.8 billion dollars to cover its annual diesel needs.

“In 2023, 609,000 tons of diesel could be imported, for about 600 million dollars (one third),” added the Energy and Mines Minister.

As of Feb. 1, an increase in the price of gasoline and diesel was planned, in order to bring the selling price in Cuban pesos in line with the official rate of the dollar, regulate sales and sell a portion only through dollar-backed cards, in order to guarantee resupply with the foreign currency, according to the government.

But the measure was postponed until further notice due to a “cybersecurity incident” caused by “a virus from abroad” that affected the system of fuel sales, which is being investigated, official information said.

The strategy to eliminate subsidies projects, as of Mar. 1, an increase in interprovincial transportation fares, with hikes of almost three times the cost of bus fares and six to seven times the cost of train tickets.

While the fares for part of the public transport service will remain unchanged, in the case of Havana, the fare for electric three wheelers will rise from four to 10 pesos (0.03 to 0.08 dollars).

The increases in fuel prices and transportation fares are in addition to the package of provisions that includes tax and tariff modifications as of Jan. 1 and which, according to government officials, are aimed at “rectifying distortions” in the economy and boosting its recovery.

“The only thing I see is that some transportation will be more expensive, but there won’t necessarily be more vehicles, or more modern vehicles with better service,” Reynaldo Martín, an electrical engineer living in Old Havana, told IPS. “Wages remain the same and that means I can’t even dream of buying a bicycle.”

Lorenzo Díaz, son-in-law of José Antonio Casimiro, uses a solar oven to cook food. In the background, a windmill and a solar heater are other technologies in the clean energy mix that the family has installed at their Finca del Medio farm in central Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela and Jorge Luis Baños
TAGUASCO, Cuba, Dec 12 2023 (IPS)

The combined use of clean energies allows Finca del Medio, a farm in central Cuba, to practice a unique system of family farming production that guarantees self-sufficiency based on permaculture, agroecology and care of the environment.

For three decades, 65-year-old farmer José Antonio Casimiro and his family have been applying innovations to take advantage of the solar, wind, hydraulic and biomass potential on their 13-hectare farm in the municipality of Taguasco in the central Cuban province of Sancti Spíritus.

Casimiro and his wife Mileidy Rodríguez, also 65, settled in 1993 with their children Leidy and José Antonio – Chavely was born a year later – on their paternal grandparents’ farm and began working to reverse the deterioration of the infrastructure and soil erosion.

The family, who live on the farm except for the eldest daughter, is currently self-sufficient in rice, beans, tubers, vegetables, milk, eggs, honey, meat, fish and fruit. Of the basic foodstuffs, they only have to buy sugar and salt, and the surplus they produce is sold in surrounding areas.

They also promote education and awareness-raising on good agricultural and environmental practices, on the social networks.

At Finca del Medio, a number of daily processes are supported by clean sources such as electricity generation, lighting, water supply, irrigation and water heating, as well as cooking, dehydration and drying of foods, and baking and refrigeration of food.

The farmer commented that the farm produces the equivalent of about 20 kilowatt hours (kWh) from a combination of multiple technologies and innovations that utilize the potential of clean energy sources.

If only conventional electricity were used for their activities, it would cost them around 10,000 pesos (83 dollars) per month, he said.

Their 28 solar panels, which produce about 8 kWh, increased the power for water collection, irrigation and supply, while three solar heaters ensure hot water for domestic needs such as bathing.

The hydraulic ram uses the water pressure itself as the only energy to extract it from a dam with a capacity of 55,000 cubic meters, pipe it to a tank at the highest part of the farm, and from there the slope is used for irrigation by gravity, or to fill the animals’ water troughs.

Next to the kitchen, two fixed-dome biodigesters provide biogas, obtained from the anaerobic decomposition of animal manure, crop waste and even household sewage.

Due to a decrease in the amount of manure, only one of the biodigesters is operating, which provides about seven meters of biogas per day, enough for cooking, baking and dehydrating food.

The innovative family devised a mechanism to extract – without emptying the pond of water or stopping biogas production – from the bottom the solids used as biofertilizers, as well as hundreds of liters of effluent for fertigation (a combination of organic fertilizers and water) of the crops, by gravity.

The installation of the biodigesters, the solar panels and one of the solar heaters was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude) and the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station of Pastures and Forages through its Biomass-Cuba project, Casimiro said.

The agro-ecological innovator also highlighted the link with other scientific institutions such as the Integrated Center for Appropriate Technologies, in the central province of Camagüey, which is focused on offering solutions to the needs of water supply and environmental sanitation, and played an essential role in the installation of the hydraulic ram.

The family also has two windmills and an efficient stove that uses firewood, coconut shells and other waste to cook food, dehydrate fruits and spices, heat water and treat meats for preservation.

Casimiro is in favor of incorporating renewable energy sources into agricultural processes. But in his opinion, “More incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life.”

Clean sources account for only five percent of electricity generation in this Caribbean archipelago of 11 million inhabitants.

The government considers it a matter of national security to modify the national energy mix, which is highly dependent on fossil fuel imports and hit by cyclical energy deficits.

A "for sale" sign seen outside a house in Centro Habana. As you walk along the streets of the Cuban capital, you see a variety of "for sale" signs on a number of houses. The same is true in cities and towns in Cuba's 168 municipalities. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Oct 16 2023 (IPS)

To emigrate to the United States and fulfill her hopes for a better life, Ana Iraida sold almost all of her belongings, including the apartment that, until her departure, saved her from the uncertainty of living in rented housing in Cuba, a country with an unresolved housing crisis.

“I inherited the apartment in Havana from my maternal grandmother, who passed away in 2015. It was small, but comfortable. I sold it for 6,000 dollars to pay for my documents, paperwork and airfare,” the philologist, who like the rest of the people interviewed preferred not to give her last name, told IPS."It is difficult to sell, because many people want to emigrate, and they are practically 'giving away' the houses. But at the same time hard currency is scarce and a person with thousands of dollars prefers to use them to leave the country." -- Elisa

From Houston, Texas in the U.S., where she now lives, the young woman said that, thanks to loans from friends, “I raised another 4,000 dollars. I got to Nicaragua in December 2022 and from there I continued by land to the U.S. border.”

Ana Iraida said she feels “fortunate” to have had a home that was “furnished and in good condition,” with which she covered her expenses. She said that others “have a more difficult time because they do not have a home of their own.”

In the last two years, emigration from Cuba has skyrocketed amidst the deterioration of the domestic economic situation, fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, the tightening of the U.S. embargo, partial dollarization of the economy, the fall in the purchasing power of wages and pensions, shortages of essential products and inflation.

Errors and delays in the implementation of reforms to modernize the country and the ineffective monetary system implemented in January 2021 have also played a role.

In this country of 11 million people, in 2022 the exodus led some 250,000 people to the United States alone, the main receiving nation of migrants from this Caribbean island nation, from which it is separated by just 90 miles of sea.

To stem the wave of immigration, on Jan. 5 the U.S. government extended to nationals of Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti a humanitarian temporary residency permit program, known as “parole”, similar to the one implemented in October 2022 for Venezuelans and previously for other nationalities.

As of the end of August, more than 47,000 Cubans had obtained the humanitarian permit, of whom 45,000 had already immigrated, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

A view of Havana from Cerro, one of its 15 municipalities. This city of 2.2 million inhabitants, the biggest in the country, has the largest housing deficit in Cuba, exceeding 800,000 housing units. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

One of the requirements for the temporary residency permit is to have sponsors who are U.S. citizens or hold some other legal status, in addition to having the financial resources to support the beneficiary or beneficiaries.

Swapping or selling parole

Owning your own home can also be an opportunity allowing whole families to move abroad.

“People are swapping houses for parole status. A few weeks ago I facilitated the exchange of a house for five parole permits to the United States. And in another case, with a residence in Miramar (a wealthy neighborhood in western Havana), nine people were the beneficiaries,” said Damian, a historian who privately engages in buying and selling, for which he charges a commission.

Damián explained to IPS that “residents in the United States ask for 10,000 to 12,000 dollars to provide a guarantee for parole status. The number of people they give a guarantee for depends on the value of the house. When the process is completed, the property is sold to a relative or friend of that person in Cuba.”

Walking through the streets in the Cuban capital, the most varied signs reading “for sale” can be seen on crumbling or remodeled buildings. The same is true in other cities and towns of the country’s 168 municipalities.

On online sites and Facebook groups for buying and selling activities, there is a proliferation of advertisements with photos and information about the properties, such as the number of rooms, the presence of a landline telephone line or an electrical installation that allows the connection of 110 and 220 volt equipment.

Some negotiate the price with or without furniture, others negotiate with buyers who pay cash in hand, or who pay in dollars, euros or make the deposit abroad.

“It is difficult to sell, because many people want to emigrate, and they are practically ‘giving away’ the houses. But at the same time hard currency is scarce and a person with thousands of dollars prefers to use them to leave the country,” said Elisa, a lawyer who told IPS she is interested in settling with her husband and son in Spain.

She said she has been trying to sell her apartment in La Vibora, another Havana neighborhood, for a year. “I can’t find a buyer, not even now that I dropped the price to 10,000 dollars, half the initial price, and it’s furnished,” she complained.

In Cuba’s informal real estate market, offers range from 2,000 dollars or less to a million dollars. The lowest of these figures is far from the average monthly salary, equivalent to 16.50 dollars on the black market.

A man pulls a cart loaded with building blocks past a house for sale in the municipality of Centro Habana. In view of the government’s diminished construction capacity and the decline of funds for housing, since 2010 the government authorized the free sale of various materials for construction, repairs, remodeling and expansion. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Hurdles despite the reforms

Now, Cubans can sell their properties even to move away from the country, a situation very different from 15 years ago, when only swaps of houses between two or more owners were possible. Homes could only be sold to the government, and they were confiscated if the people living there emigrated.

Under laws passed in the early years after the 1959 revolution, most citizens became homeowners.

The Urban Reform Law of 1960 turned housing properties over to those who lived in them, prohibited their sale or lease, and abolished private construction and mortgages.

After decades of prohibitions, in October 2011 the 1988 General Housing Law was amended and the doors were opened to free purchase and sale between Cuban citizens and even foreign residents, endorsed before notaries and with the payment of taxes.

The law also eliminated certain formalities and official regulations on swaps.

Prior to the restitution of the right of ownership of residential units, in 2010 the government approved permits allowing people to build, repair or expand their own homes.

In view of the government’s reduced capacity for construction and the decline in housing funds in that same year, the free sale of cement, sand, gravel, cement blocks and corrugated iron bars was also authorized, which until then had been exclusively centrally allocated or sold in convertible pesos (CUC, a now defunct currency equivalent to the dollar).

The authorities promoted the granting of subsidies to vulnerable families, especially those affected by hurricanes, and micro-credits to build, expand or remodel homes.

These measures helped drive a boom in private construction and repairs.

As in other areas marked by the scarcity of materials, red tape and unequal purchasing power, the granting of housing and sale of materials is not exempt from corruption, theft and poor quality work, which has given rise to repeated complaints from the public.

There is still a housing deficit of more than 800,000 homes, while one third of Cuba’s 3.9 million homes are in fair or poor condition.

The largest deficits are concentrated in Havana, a city of 2.2 million inhabitants, as well as in Holguín, Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey, the other three most populated cities.

In 2019, a Housing Policy was launched, aimed at eliminating the housing shortage within a decade, based on the incentive of local production of construction materials and recyclable inputs, in addition to the contribution from the government and the centrally planned economy.

But the policy has run into hurdles as a result of the economic crisis, and multiple factors such as delays in paperwork and procedures, loss of material resources, unfinished subsidies and financial resources tied up in the banks.

The shortage of foreign currency and insufficient investment stand in the way of increasing production and incorporating equipment to boost construction capacity and sustainability.

Official data show that in 2022, more than 195 million dollars were dedicated to business services, real estate and rental activity, including hotel construction, which represented almost 33 percent of investment in the sector.

On the other hand, only 8.5 million dollars were allocated to housing construction, or 1.4 percent of the total, according to the government’s National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI).

Since 2019, 127,345 housing units were completed and 106,332 were remodeled or repaired, said Vivian Rodriguez, general director of Housing of the Ministry of Construction, during the most recent session of the Council of Ministers, on Oct. 1.

The authorities acknowledged that compliance with the year’s plan of 30,000 new units is under threat. Maintaining this pace would mean eliminating the housing deficit in more than 28 years.

A rundown house stands next to a newly remodeled home on a street in the municipality of Playa, Havana. A third of Cuba’s 3.9 million homes are considered to be in fair and poor condition. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

No immediate solution

The lack of housing and the deterioration of existing homes continue without a viable solution in the short or medium term.

On many occasions, people of different generations are forced to live together in small homes, many of which are in a state of disrepair, putting a significant number of families at risk.

Access to housing has also been identified as a factor in the low birth and fertility rates that Cuba has been experiencing for decades.

There is also a problem after tropical cyclones and heavy rains, when centuries-old buildings that have never been remodeled or repaired collapse, or those vulnerable to strong winds are left roofless.

The private practice of professions such as architecture is also not allowed, and although since September 2021 the government has authorized the incorporation of micro, small and medium-sized companies, some of which specialize in the construction and repair of real estate, they still encounter obstacles to their practice.

“There could be many solutions, but in my opinion an essential one is that building materials must be available and at affordable prices; or that houses can be sold to workers so they can pay for them on credit. Otherwise, families will continue to be overcrowded, roofs and walls will collapse on us, or we will grow old without a place of our own,” Orlando, a prep school teacher living in Havana, told IPS.

Artist and farmer Chavely Casimiro and her daughter Leah Amanda Díaz feed one of the biodigesters at Finca del Medio, a farm in central Cuba. The biodigester produces about seven meters of biogas per day, enough energy for cooking, baking and dehydrating food. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
TAGUASCO, Cuba, Oct 2 2023 (IPS)

Combining technologies and innovations to take advantage of solar, wind, hydro and biomass potential has made the Finca del Medio farm an example in Cuba in the use of clean energies, which are the basis of its agroecological and environmental sanitation practices.

Renewable energy sources are used in many everyday processes such as electricity generation, lighting, water supply, irrigation and water heating, as well as in cooking, dehydrating, drying, baking and refrigeration of foodstuffs.

“We started out with windmills on artesian wells and hydraulic rams to pump water. That gave us an awareness of the amount of energy we needed and of how to expand its use,” said farmer José Antonio Casimiro, 65, owner of this agroecological family farm located in the center of this long Caribbean island nation."More incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life." -- José Antonio Casimiro

The farmer expressed his appreciation of the help of his son, 41, also named Antonio Casimiro, in the installation of the two mills at Finca del Medio, during the days in which IPS visited the farm and shared in activities with the family.

“There was no one to assemble or repair them. We both had to study a great deal, and we learned to do a lot of construction things as we went along and perfected the techniques,” said Casimiro junior, referring to the equipment that is now inactive, but is capable of extracting some 4,000 liters of water daily from the water table.

When rainfall is abundant and the volume of the 55,000-cubic-meter-capacity reservoir rises, the hydraulic ram comes to life. The device diverts about 20,000 liters of water to a 45,000-liter tank, 400 meters away and 18 meters above the level of the reservoir.

“The only energy the rams use is the water pressure itself. Placing it on the highest part of the land makes it easier to use the slope for gravity irrigation, or to fill the animals’ water troughs,” explained Chavely Casimiro, 28, the youngest daughter of José Antonio and Mileidy Rodríguez, also 65.

An artist who also inherited the family’s “farming gene”, Chavely highlighted some twenty innovations made by her father to the hydraulic ram, in order to optimize water collection.

Other inventions speed up the assembly and disassembly of the windmills for maintenance, or in the event of tropical cyclones.

“We have been replacing the water supply with solar panels, which are more efficient. They can be removed faster (than the windmill blades) if a hurricane is coming. You can incorporate batteries and store the energy,” said Casimiro.

“Let’s say a windmill costs about 2,000 dollars. With that amount you can buy four 350-watt panels. That would be more than a kilowatt hour (kWh) of power. You buy a couple of batteries for 250 dollars each, and with that amount of kWh you can pump the equivalent of the water of about 10 windmills,” he said.

But the farmer said the windmills are more important than the energy they generate. “It would be nice if every farm had at least one windmill. For me it is very symbolic to see them pumping up water,” he said.

Lorenzo Díaz, the husband of Chavely Casimiro, uses a solar oven to cook food. In the background can be seen a windmill and a solar heater, other technologies that take advantage of the potential for renewable energies on the Finca del Medio farm in central Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Innovations

Located in the municipality of Taguasco, in the central province of Sancti Spíritus, some 350 kilometers east of Havana, Finca del Medio follows a family farm model including permaculture, agroecology and agricultural production based on the use of clean energy.

In 1993, Casimiro and Rodríguez with their children Leidy and José Antonio – a year later, Chavely was born – decided to settle on the 13-hectare farm of their paternal grandparents, with the aim of reversing its deterioration and soil erosion and installing perimeter fences.

The erosion of the land was due to the fact that in the past the farm was dedicated to the cultivation of tobacco, which depleted the soil, and later it had fallen into abandonment, as well as the house.

The older daughter is the only one who does not live and work on the farm, although she does spend time there, and a total of ten family members live there, including four grandchildren. All the adults either work on the farm or help out with different tasks.

With the help of technological innovations adapted to the local ecosystem, and empirical and scientific knowledge, the family has become self-sufficient in rice, beans, tubers, vegetables, milk, eggs, honey, meat, fish and more than 30 varieties of fruit. The only basic foodstuffs not produced on the farm are sugar and salt.

They sell all surplus production, including cow’s milk, for which they have specific contracts, and they are also promoting agrotourism, for which they are making further improvements to the facilities.

At Finca del Medio, a system of channels and ditches allows the infiltration of rainwater, reduces erosion of the topsoil and conserves as much water as possible for subsequent irrigation.

These innovations also benefit neighboring communities by mitigating flooding and replenishing the water table, which has brought water back to formerly dry wells.

The construction of the house is also an offshoot of technological solutions to the scarcity of resources such as steel, which led to the design of dome-shaped roofs made of mud bricks and cement.

The design aids in rainwater harvesting, improves hurricane protection, and boosts ventilation, creating cooler spaces, which reduces the need for air conditioning equipment and bolsters savings.

Along with food production, the new generations and members of the Casimiro-Rodriguez family engage in educational activities to raise awareness about good agricultural and environmental practices.

Students from nearby schools come to the farm to learn about these practices, as well as specialists in agroecology and people from different parts of the world, interested in sharing the experience. Meanwhile, several members of the family have traveled abroad to give workshops on agroecology and permaculture.

Farmers José Antonio Casimiro (R) and his son of the same name talk in the mechanical workshop at their Finca del Medio farm. Both have come up with innovations for the use of windmills, the hydraulic ram and biodigesters, as well as agricultural tools. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Solar and biogas potential

On one of the side roofs of the house are 28 photovoltaic panels that provide about eight kWh, connected to batteries. The stored energy covers the household’s needs during power outages that affect the island due to fuel shortages and breakdowns and problems in maintenance of its aging thermoelectric plants.

In addition, the household has three solar water heaters with a capacity of 380 liters.

Next to the kitchen, two fixed-dome biodigesters produce another renewable fuel, biogas, composed mainly of methane and carbon dioxide from the anaerobic decomposition of animal manure, crop waste and “even sewage from the house, which we channel so that the waste does not contaminate the environment,” said Casimiro.

Due to the current shortage of manure as the number of cows has been reduced, only one of the biodigesters is now operational, producing about seven meters of biogas per day, sufficient for cooking, baking and dehydration of foodstuffs.

The innovative family devised a mechanism to extract – without emptying the pond of water or stopping biogas production – from the bottom the solids used as biofertilizers, as well as hundreds of liters of effluent for fertigation (a combination of organic fertilizers and water) of the crops, by gravity.

The installation of the biodigesters, the solar panels and one of the solar heaters was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude) and the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station of Pastures and Forages through its Biomass-Cuba project, Casimiro said.

He also expressed gratitude for the link with other scientific institutions such as the Integrated Center for Appropriate Technologies, based in the central province of Camagüey, which is focused on offering solutions to the needs of water supply and environmental sanitation, and played an essential role in the installation of the hydraulic ram.

The farmer said the farm produces the equivalent of about 20 kWh from the combination of renewable energies, and if only conventional electricity were used, the cost would be around 83 dollars a month.

Lorenzo Díaz feeds firewood into an innovative stove that allows the Finca del Medio farm to efficiently cook food, dehydrate or dry fruits and spices, heat water and preserve meat, among other functions. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Efficient stove

In the large, functional kitchen, the stove covered with white tiles and a chimney has been remodeled 16 times to make it more efficient and turn it into another source of pride at the farm.

Fueled by firewood, coconut shells and other waste, “the stove makes it possible to cook food, dehydrate fruits and spices, heat water and preserve meat, among other tasks,” Rodríguez told IPS as she listed some of the advantages of this other offshoot of the family’s ingenuity that helps her as a skilled cook and pastry chef.

She pointed out that by extracting all the smoke, “the design makes better use of the heat, which will be used in a sauna” being built next to the kitchen, for the enjoyment of the family and potential tourists.

Casimiro is in favor of incorporating clean energy into agricultural processes, but he said that “more incentives, better policies and financial support are needed so that farming families have sufficient energy for their work and can improve the comfort of their homes and quality of life.”

Since 2014, Cuba has had a policy for the development of renewable energy sources and their efficient use.

A substantial modification of the national energy mix, which is highly dependent on the import of fossil fuels and hit by cyclical energy deficits, is a matter of national security

However, regulations with certain customs exemptions and other incentives to increase the production of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric energies in this Caribbean island nation still seem insufficient in view of the high prices of these technologies, the domestic economic crisis and the meager purchasing power of most Cuban families.

Clean sources account for only five percent of the island’s electricity generation, a scenario that the government wants to radically transform, with an ambitious goal of a 37 percent proportion by 2030, which is increasingly difficult to achieve.

Several people, mainly women, stand in line to check their tickets at Terminal 3 o the José Martí International Airport in Havana. According to the International Organization for Migration, women represent 48 percent of international migrants worldwide, and more and more are migrating on their own. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Aug 25 2023 (IPS)

Emigrating from Cuba was an agonizing decision for Ana Iraida. She left behind family and friends; in her backpack she carried many hopes, but also the fear of facing dangers on the journey to the United States.

“My salary and that of my second job, as an editor, were insufficient. I wanted to prosper and help my parents. Nor did I want to have a child in a country where it is an ordeal to buy everything from disposable diapers to soap, not to mention food,” the 33-year-old philologist who, like the others interviewed for this story, asked to withhold her last name, told IPS.

After selling her apartment in Havana, she left for Nicaragua in December 2022."The journey. I could have been robbed of my money, raped or even murdered. Almost two years ago, when the airports reopened after the COVID pandemic, some young women who lived near my house left and their families never heard from them again." -- Ana Iraida

“Some friends lent me the rest of the money I needed. I reached Mexico by land. I paid 1,800 dollars to be taken to the (U.S.) border. I crossed and turned myself in to the border patrol in Yuma, Arizona, on New Year’s Day,” the young woman said from Houston, Texas, where she now lives.

Estimates put the number of Cubans who emigrated in 2022 at 300,000. Of these, some 250,000 attempted to reach the United States, the country that receives the largest inflow of Cubans and that is only 167 kilometers from Cuba across the Straits of Florida.

The increase in the exodus from this Caribbean island nation of 11 million people is happening against a backdrop of a worsening economic crisis, fueled by COVID, the stiffening of the U.S. embargo, partial dollarization, waning purchasing power of salaries and pensions, shortages of essential products and inflation.

Added to this are failures and delays in the implementation of a set of reforms to modernize the country, approved in 2011, and the unsuccessful implementation of monetary reforms since January 2021.

Local officials here argue that the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act – known as the “wet foot, dry foot policy” – in force since 1966, encourages the exodus, since it made all Cubans eligible for permanent residency a year and a day after setting foot in U.S. territory.

In the past, the rule benefited all Cubans who set foot on U.S. soil. But since January 2017 it only applies to those who have entered the country legally.

However, the flow of Cubans into the U.S. slowed after President Joe Biden’s administration adopted on Jan. 5 a temporary humanitarian residency permit program known as parole, similar to the one implemented in October 2022 for Venezuelans and previously for people of other nationalities.

As of the end of July, more than 41,000 Cubans had obtained temporary parole, 39,000 of whom had already reached the country, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported on Aug. 18.

In addition, after a four-year freeze, on Jan. 4 the U.S. Embassy in Havana resumed processing immigrant visas, a decision that the Cuban government welcomed as a “necessary and correct step” aimed at guaranteeing regular, orderly and safe migration.

Women line up to buy food in Havana. The economic situation, aging population and emigration of young people and professionals are placing additional hurdles in the way of caregivers to obtain food, medicines and other supplies. Image: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Risks and impacts

International organizations and human rights groups warn of the risks faced by immigrants en route, especially women, children and the elderly, who are more likely to become victims of abuse, mistreatment, discrimination, extortion, kidnapping and sexual violence by organized crime groups.

“The journey was stressful,” said Ana Iraida. “I could have been robbed of my money, raped or even murdered. Almost two years ago, when the airports reopened after the COVID pandemic, some young women who lived near my house left and their families never heard from them again.”

Other migrants never reach their destinations and remain trapped in transit countries in overcrowded conditions or as victims of violence.

I was also worried “that they would detain me and send me back to Cuba, and that in the end I would have no home to return to, and be in debt,” added Iraida.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), women account for 48 percent of international migrants worldwide and an increasing number are migrating independently, including as heads of households, in search of new opportunities, to join their families or to help relatives in their home countries.

Research indicates that this phenomenon, known as the feminization of migration, generates significant impacts on demographic, physical, economic, cultural and gender indicators in regions and countries.

An elderly woman walks in Havana with the help of her companion. The National Survey on Population Aging showed that about 68 percent of caregivers in Cuba are women, and most of them are over 50 years old. At the same time, more than 57 percent of people over 50 prefer to be cared for by women. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Cuba’s January 2013 immigration reform eliminated the requirement for exit permits and letters of invitation for nationals residing on the island, extended from 11 to 24 months the time they could stay abroad without losing residency, and repealed legislation that allowed the confiscation of assets of those who left the country.

Subsequent regulations have also favored increased travel abroad for personal reasons and the possibility of living temporarily or permanently outside the country, opening the doors to a better relationship with the Cuban exile community.

Women make up a majority of those seeking temporary residence abroad, while men are a majority among those who decide to live abroad permanently, revealed the report of the National Migration Survey (Enmig 2016-2017), published by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei) in January 2019.

The survey found that 59 percent of the men and 45 percent of the women who decided to live temporarily or permanently in another country did so “to improve their economic conditions.”

In the case of women, “getting closer to or visiting family”, “supporting or caring for family members” and “helping their family here” (35 percent) are the most important motives, while they were the main motives for only 21 percent of the men.

Mothers accompany their primary school children during the start of a new school year in Havana. Researchers have called for more attention to be paid to the relationship between the feminization of migration and the burden of care. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Focusing on care

Researchers have called for more attention to be paid to the relationship between the feminization of migration and the burden of care.

In the case of Cuba, they say, migration itself often becomes a complementary strategy to face the problems associated with caregiving.

The economic crisis, the aging demographic and the emigration of young people and professionals are placing additional obstacles on caregivers to provide food, buy medicines and manage supplies.

“I moved to Ecuador seven years ago,” Betsy, a 38-year-old teacher, told IPS from the city of Guayaquil. “My two children were born here. My work makes it possible for me to send money, medicines and other products to Cuba to take care of my 80-year-old father, who has senile dementia. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for my older sister to provide adequate care for him.”

In Cuba, 22.3 percent of the population is over 60 years of age, and by 2025 it is estimated that one in four of the island’s residents will be an older adult.

The National Gender Equality Survey, published in 2019, showed that Cuban women spend an average of 14 hours more than men on unpaid work per week, which includes caring for the elderly, chronically ill and dependent persons, as well as helping children and adolescents with their homework.

For its part, the 2017 National Survey of Population Aging (Enep), whose data came out in 2020, showed that about 68 percent of those who provide care are women and most are over 50 years old.

In the case of needing care, more than 57 percent of the population over the age of 50 prefers to receive it from women, according to the study.

“I chose to stay and live in Canada almost two years ago,” said Rocio from Halifax, the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. “It has been an ordeal, but I have no regrets. It’s a way to help my 11-year-old son and my retired parents, who are taking care of him until we can be together again.”

The 40-year-old translator, who lived in the eastern Cuban city of Holguín, told IPS that “with my salary, my son and I were living on a tight budget. I could hardly help my parents, whose pensions barely covered the household bills, medicines and the few foodstuffs they could afford. I am far away, I suffer from the separation, but every month I can send them money so that they can live more comfortably and eat better.”

Increasingly young and female-dominated emigration is challenging national development plans on a sustainable basis.

“This situation calls for further research and public debate on the present and future impacts of demographic dynamics such as migration and aging as they relate to the social organization of caregiving on the island,” argues Cuban sociologist Elaine Acosta.

In the opinion of Acosta, executive director of “Cuido60, Observatory of aging, care and rights”, there is an urgent need “to accelerate and deepen structural reforms so that migration ceases to be a daily survival strategy and, at the same time, to obtain the necessary resources to implement appropriate and integrated social policies to face the current and future challenges of aging.”

A group of drivers push a car at the end of a long line to refuel in Havana. The Cuban authorities say the fundamental cause of the shortage of diesel and gasoline has to do with breaches of contracts by suppliers. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Apr 27 2023 (IPS)

Long lines of vehicles outside of gas stations reflect the acute shortage of diesel and gasoline in Cuba, which has had negative impacts on an economy that is highly dependent on fuel imports and has only a small proportion of renewable sources in its energy mix.

“They don’t sell you enough fuel at the gas stations and the line barely creeps forward because there are also many irregularities and corruption. It’s exhausting,” said engineer Rolando Estupiñán, who was driving an old Soviet Union-made Lada. When he spoke to IPS in Havana, he was still a long way from the pumps at the station and had given up hope of working that day.

Lisbet Brito, an accountant living in the Cuban capital, lamented in a conversation with IPS that “the public buses take a long time. Private cars (that act as taxis) are making shorter trips and charging more. Nobody can afford this. It’s very difficult to get to work or school, or to a medical or any other kind of appointment.”

Brito said another fear “is that food prices will rise further or supplies will decrease, if the shortage of oil makes it difficult to supply the markets.”

External and internal factors, including the fuel shortage, contribute to low levels of agricultural production, which is insufficient to meet the demand of the 11.1 million inhabitants of this Caribbean island nation.

The outlook is made even more complex by the macroeconomic imbalances, marked by partial dollarization, high inflation and depreciation of wages, salaries and pensions which have strangled household budgets.

Asiel Ramos, who uses his vehicle as a private taxi in this city of 2.2 million people, justified the increase in his rates “because the cost of a liter of diesel skyrocketed” on the black market, where it ranges from a little more than a dollar to three dollars, in sharp contrast to the average monthly salary of around 35 dollars.

“I pay taxes and I have to keep the car running so my children and wife can eat. I can’t spend days stocking up on fuel, and when it’s over, go back again. If I buy ‘on the left‘ (a euphemism for buying on the black market) I have to raise my prices,” Ramos told IPS.

To get around, most Cubans depend on the public transport system, based mainly on buses, which are less expensive than private taxis. But the chronic deficit of equipment, spare parts, lubricants and other inputs, added to the fuel shortage, means service is irregular, the most visible expression of which is the packed bus stops.

A group of people try to board a minibus on a central avenue in Havana. Public transport in Cuba faces a chronic deficit of equipment, spare parts, lubricants and other inputs, which, added to fuel shortages, means service is irregular and bus stops are crowded. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Measures

The fuel shortage drove the authorities to announce on the night of Apr. 25 the cancellation of the traditional parades for May 1, International Workers’ Day, and other activities such as political rallies or workplace, community or municipal events, as a rationing and austerity measure, and to declare that only essential transportation would be available.

In the capital, instead of the workers’ march through the José Marti Plaza de la Revolución, a rally was called for May 1 along the Havana Malecón or seaside boulevard, which expects some 120,000 people coming on foot from five of the 15 Havana municipalities.

On Apr. 17, the Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy said on television that the fundamental cause of the shortage of diesel and gasoline is related to breaches of contracts by suppliers.

He said the U.S. embargo “makes it very difficult to obtain ships to transport the fuel, to seek financing and to meet the normal requirements of these contracts.”

In November, during President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s tour of Algeria, Russia, Turkey and China, agreements were signed with some of these countries for the stable supply of hydrocarbons, power generation and the modernization of thermoelectric plants.

Venezuela and Russia appear to be the country’s main energy suppliers.

On Apr. 23, the general director of the state company Unión Cuba Petróleo (Cupet), Néstor Pérez, told national media outlets that “one of the closest suppliers despite having innumerable production limitations… has guaranteed the supply of some products (refinable crude and derivatives) that somewhat alleviate the existing situation, but do not cover all the demands of the economy and the population.”

Presumably Pérez was referring to Venezuela, although he did not specifically say so, because that country has been the largest supplier of hydrocarbons this century, although due to its own internal crisis its exports to Cuba have clearly declined.

De la O Levy noted that, based on negotiations with international suppliers, an improvement is expected in May, although the availability of fuel will not reach the levels seen in 2017 or 2018, when the country was in a more favorable situation.

The priorities in the use of the reserves are the health and funeral services, public transportation and transport of merchandise, as well as the potato harvest, the official said.

The government of Havana, which as a province encompasses the 15 municipalities that make up the capital, limited the sale of diesel to 100 liters per vehicle and 40 liters of gasoline. In the remaining 14 provinces, rationing measures were also ordered.

Several universities postponed the entry of scholarship students until the first week of May, and announced online classes and consultations.

Sales of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are also affected, used by more than 1.7 million consumers, although the next arrival of a ship with the product should bring back stability to the service, according to officials.

Two men shine a mobile phone flashlight while fixing a car during a blackout in Havana. Breakages and repairs in some of the country’s thermoelectric plants lead to power shortages that trigger blackouts that last several hours in some parts of the country. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Electricity generation deficit

This situation coincides with breaks and repairs in some of the 20 thermoelectric generation plants, which have operated for an average of more than 30 years.

These plants process, for the most part, heavy national crude oil, with a sulfur content between seven and 18 degrees API, which requires more frequent repair cycles that are sometimes postponed due to a lack of financing.

Around 95 percent of the electricity generated in Cuba comes from fossil sources.

This country consumes some 8.3 million tons of fuel per year, of which almost 40 percent is nationally produced.

President Díaz-Canel explained on Apr. 14 that due to the number of thermoelectric blocks under repair “we have had to depend more on distributed generation that basically consumes diesel” in the country’s 168 municipalities.

The generation deficits cause blackouts, although of a lesser magnitude than the 10 to 12-hour a day cuts that for a large part of 2022 affected different parts of the country and sparked demonstrations and pot-banging protests in poor neighborhoods of several municipalities.

The rest of the electricity generation comes from gas accompanying national oil, and floating units rented to Turkey, while renewable energy sources account for only five percent of the total.

The current energy situation is occurring as summer looms, when temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius increase the use of fans and air conditioners, while a majority of the 3.9 million homes in Cuba depend on electricity for cooking food.

Members of the Electric Motorcycle Club gather in Havana for recreational activities. Customs measures have facilitated the importation of electric vehicles which reduce carbon emissions. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Promoting renewable sources

“We must further promote renewable sources and stimulate a change from fuel-guzzling, polluting vehicles that are more than half a century old to more modern and efficient ones,” computer scientist Alexis Rodríguez told IPS from the eastern city of Holguin, where he lives.

The transformation of the national energy mix is ​​considered by the government a matter of national security, and as part of its plans it aims for 37 percent of electricity to come from clean energy by 2030.

Since 2014, Cuba has had a policy for the prospective development of renewable energy sources and their efficient use, and in 2019 Decree Law 345 established regulations to increase the proportion of renewables in electricity generation and gradually decrease the share of fossil fuels.

Such a significant transformation will require investments of some six billion dollars, authorities in the sector estimate, which constitutes a challenge for a country whose main sources of revenue are dwindling, and which has pending a restart of interest payments on its debt to international creditors.

“It is also important to encourage the use of bicycles and electric vehicles, but they must be sold at reasonable prices, on credit as well, with guarantees of spare parts and the improvement of infrastructure,” Rodríguez added.

In addition to hybrid buses, a hundred light electric vehicles have been added to the capital’s public transport system that contribute to citizen micromobility and to reducing carbon emissions.

In recent years, the customs agency made provisions more flexible for citizens and companies to import solar panels. Although official data are not available, the measure has not had a significant influence.

Measures for the import and assembly on the island of bicycles, motorcycles and three and four-wheel electric vehicles – more than half a million of which circulate in Cuba – also bolster the mobility of people and families.

However, the high prices and sales only in hard currencies curb the expansion and use of more environmentally-friendly vehicles. Another hurdle is the dependence on the national power grid to recharge the batteries and the absence of service stations for electric vehicles.

José Luis Márquez, Yaisema Fabelo and their son Yadir stand around a table holding fruits harvested from their Los Tres Hermanos agroecological farm, in Martí, a municipality in northwestern Cuba. The family of farmers values ​​the final products of biogas technology, rich in nutrients suitable for fertilizing and restoring the soil. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
MARTÍ, Cuba , Apr 20 2023 (IPS)

The first five biomethane-fuelled buses in the Cuban municipality of Martí will not only be a milestone in the country but will also represent a solution to the serious problem of transportation, while reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and bolstering local development.

Yaisema Fabelo, a librarian at the local prep school, told IPS that “the buses will boost the quality of life of the residents” of the municipality located in the north of the western province of Matanzas, about 200 kilometers east of Havana.

Fabelo, who is also a farmer from the Los Tres Hermanos agroecological farm, stressed that using biogas on an industrial scale and on individual farms “to produce electricity, cook food and obtain biofertilizers for organic crops” will benefit the 22,000 inhabitants of the municipality and surrounding areas.

The Martí I and nearby Martí II covered lagoon biodigesters will produce around 1,800 and 3,600 cubic meters of biogas per day, respectively, when they come into operation. They will connect through two separate gas pipelines with a biomethane plant where the fuel will be obtained for a group of buses. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

The project

Turning pig manure and crop waste into biomethane and biogas is the focus of the project “Global Action for Climate Change in Cuba: Municipality of Martí, towards a carbon-neutral sustainable development model.”

The project, carried out by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Ministry of Economy and Planning with 5.5 million dollars in financing disbursed by the European Union, began to be implemented in 2020 and is to be completed in 2024.“[We want] to demonstrate that the biodigesters are economically feasible for Cuba, that connected with large pig farms they can be used to generate electricity and contribute to the economy." -- Anober Aguilar

“The main problem that Martí has ​​in the case of greenhouse gases is waste, responsible for 57 percent of our emissions,” explained Sobeida Reyes, director of territorial development for the town.

In an interview with IPS, the official pointed out that with the project and as part of the local development strategy, the aim is to gradually contribute to decarbonization with the use of renewable energy sources and incorporate biogas to biomethane conversion technology.

Biogas is composed mainly of methane and carbon dioxide, obtained in biodigesters from the decomposition of organic residues such as agricultural or livestock waste by bacteria, through anaerobic digestion, without oxygen.

Biomethane, also known as a renewable gas, is derived from a treatment process that removes carbon dioxide, moisture, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, among other impurities from biogas, which brings its composition closer to that of fossil natural gas and favors its use to generate electricity and heat and to fuel vehicles.

The plan is to strengthen the public transport system through “16 buses powered by biomethane, the first five of which are to be tested in February 2024, after a bidding process outlined in the project that will facilitate their importation,” Reyes said.

“There is a commitment that these buses will be driven by women,” she added.

The future biomethane plant, which has already been awarded in tender, will provide, according to the plan, about 150 cubic meters per hour of gas suitable for bottling.

It will depend on the Martí I and Martí II covered lagoon biodigesters, which will be the largest in the country and will produce around 1,800 and 3,600 cubic meters of biogas per day, respectively, when they come into operation.

These, in turn, will each be fed by a pig breeding center belonging to the Matanzas Pork Company.

A third of the 14 kilometers of gas pipelines that will connect both biodigesters to the biomethane plant have already been put in place.

The generator is also being installed, while the lagoon is being filled with water to check its operation. The last thing needed is to put in place the membrane that will cover it.

This part is expected to be operational in February of next year, as well as the biomethane plant, so that the first five buses can then be tested, according to the established timeframe.

With the help of an electricity generator, the Martí I biodigester is to provide 100 kilowatts per hour, equivalent to the approximate consumption of 80 to 100 homes. The Martí II will provide even more.

A poster shows what the Martí I covered lagoon biodigester will look like. For Anober Aguilar, a specialist at the Indio Hatuey Pastures and Forages Experimental Station, responsible for the technological assembly, the construction of this type of biodigesters is economically feasible in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Greater commitment to biogas

A potent greenhouse gas, methane has 80 times the climate-warming power of carbon dioxide, studies show.

Scientists argue that proper management of methane resulting from the decomposition of agricultural waste and livestock manure helps to mitigate water and soil pollution and to combat climate change.

Its extraction and energy use, especially in rural and semi-urban settings, can be a cost-effective solution to reduce the consumption of electricity based on fossil sources. In Cuba there are an estimated 5,000 small-scale (up to 24 cubic meters per day) biodigesters.

In this country of 11.1 million inhabitants, a significant percentage of the 3.9 million households use electricity as the main source of energy for cooking and heating water for bathing.

Renewable energy sources account for only five percent of the national energy mix.

In the case of biogas, “the main obstacle to its expansion is the availability of manure, as there is a low number of pigs and cattle, due to problems with feed and animal nutrition,” Anober Aguilar, an expert with the Indio Hatuey Pasture and Forage Experimental Station, located in Perico, another municipality of Matanzas, told IPS.

This scientific research center for technological management and innovation in the field of livestock production is in charge of the technological assembly of the biodigesters of the covered lagoon in Martí.

In the context of an economic crisis that has lasted for three decades, exacerbated by the tightening of the U.S, embargo, the COVID pandemic, and failed or delayed economic reforms, Cuba has limited imports of animal feed due to the shortage of foreign currency.

Furthermore, insufficient harvests do not guarantee abundant raw material to produce feed, while the scarcity of construction materials and their high cost make it impossible for many farmers to undertake the construction of a biodigester.

Conservative estimates by experts suggest that there is potential to expand the network of biodigesters on the island to up to 20,000 units, at least small-scale ones.

“If we look at the cost of the investment in the short term, it is more feasible to focus on wind or solar energy, because setting up a biodigester requires more financing, more time and specialized personnel,” explained Aguilar.

But seen at a distance of 10 to 15 years, “the investment evens out, because the potential of photovoltaic cells declines, repairs are made difficult by the rapid changes in technology, or the blades of the windmills deteriorate, in addition to the fact that both are more vulnerable to tropical cyclones,” the expert said.

“As long as they have raw material, biodigesters produce 24 hours a day,” he added.

He specified that one of the objectives of the project is “to demonstrate that the biodigesters are economically feasible for Cuba, that connected with large pig farms they can be used to generate electricity and contribute to the economy.”

Ministerial Order 395 of April 2021, of the Ministry of Energy and Mines, stipulated that each of the 168 Cuban municipalities must have a development program and strategy regarding biogas, and coordinate their management and implementation with those of their respective province.

Electrical technician Reinaldo Álvarez shows the electric generator located in the Martí I covered lagoon biodigester, in northwestern Cuba, which will provide about 100 kilowatt hours, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 80 to 100 homes. The nearby Martí II biodigester will produce even more. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Promoting agroecology

Martí’s development strategy includes projects to prepare preserves, spices and dehydrated foods with the help of the sun, a biomass gasifier for drying rice and generating electricity, the production of cooking oil, thermal baths, exploiting natural asphalt deposits, and social works, among others.

Reyes reported that 28 farms in the municipality have biodigesters, and that in 12 of them, as part of the project, “a module was delivered that includes a refrigerator, a stove, a rice cooker and a lamp, which use biogas.”

Another urgent objective is to foment agroecology and move towards local self-sufficiency in food, including animal feed.

“In the current harvest we had a yield per hectare of 19 tons of organic potatoes. As with the other crops, we only used biological products, of which more than 80 percent were produced by us,” farmer José Luis Márquez explained to IPS.

The 13-hectare Los Tres Hermanos agroecological teaching farm, dedicated to growing a variety of crops and small livestock using sustainable techniques, was granted in usufruct by the government, forms part of the Ciro Redondo credit and services cooperative, and has been managed by Márquez since 2018, together with his wife Yaisema Fabelo and their son Yadir.

A nationally manufactured PVC (polyvinyl chloride) tubular biodigester is also installed on the farm, with a volume of forty cubic meters.

“Due to the pandemic and the shortage of manure, it is not producing. We want to once again encourage pig and rabbit farming, recycle solid waste and convert it into organic fertilizer for crops and household chores,” said Márquez.

Biogas technology provides biol and biosol, liquid effluent and sludge, respectively, rich in nutrients to fertilize and restore the soil.

The farm is visited by students from different levels of education, up to prep school, who through workshops given by Márquez and Fabelo, learn about good agroecological practices “and the positive impact on the economy, people’s health and the environment,” Fabelo said.

By Luis Brizuela and Jorge Luis Baños
HAVANA, Jan 11 2023 (IPS)

Félix Morffi supports the energy needs of his home with the help of the sun, in some cases through handcrafted solutions that make the most of an alternative source that is abundant in Cuba, but still used very little.

With two tanks, glass, aluminum sheets, as well as cinderblocks, sand and cement, the 86-year-old retiree created, in 2006, a solar heater that meets his household needs.

“You build it today and tomorrow you have hot water; anyone can do it, and if they have a bit of advice, all the better,” said the retired mid-level machine and tool repair technician who lives in the municipality of Regla, one of the 15 that make up Havana.

He also designed and made a dryer that uses the heat of the sun to dehydrate fruits, spices and tubers, which he assembled mostly with recycled products such as pieces of wood, nylon, acrylic and aluminum sheets.

On the roof of his house, 16 solar panels imported in 2019 provide five kilowatts of power (kWp) and help run his small automotive repair shop where he works on vehicles for state-owned companies and private individuals, an independent enterprise that he set up next to his house.

The innovator believes that despite the economic conditions, with a little ingenuity people can take advantage of the natural elements, because “the sun shines for everyone; the wind is there and costs you nothing, but your wealth is in your brain”

In addition to covering his household needs, he provides the surplus electricity to the national grid, the National Electric Power System (SEN).

Morffi said more training is needed among personnel involved in several processes, and he cited delays of more than a year between the signing of the contract with Unión Eléctrica and the beginning of payments for the energy surpluses provided to the SEN, as well as “inconsistency with respect to the assembly” of the equipment.

Although Cuba has a national policy on renewable energy sources, “there is still a lot of ignorance and very little desire to do things, and do them well. Awareness-raising is needed,” he argued.

The innovator believes that despite the economic conditions, with a little ingenuity people can take advantage of the natural elements, because “the sun shines for everyone; the wind is there and costs you nothing, but your wealth is in your brain.”

In his backyard, a small solar panel keeps the water flowing from a well for his barnyard fowl and an artificial pond holding a variety of ornamental fish as well as tilapia for family consumption.

The construction of a small biodigester, about four cubic meters in size, is also at an advanced stage on his land, aimed at using methane gas from the decomposition of animal manure and crop waste, for cooking.

Morffi, who manages these activities with the backing of several family members, also plans to import three small wind turbines of 0.5 kWp each and a new batch of 4 kWp solar PV panels.

His vision is to turn his house into a space for the production and promotion of renewable energies in Cuba.

To this end, he has the support of the non-governmental Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (Cubasolar), of which Morffi has been a member since 2004.

Since 2014, Cuba has had a Policy for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources and their Efficient Use. And in 2019, Decree Law 345 established regulations to increase the share of renewables in electricity generation and steadily decrease the proportion represented by fossil fuels.

According to studies, this archipelago of more than 110,800 square kilometers with an annual average of 330 sunny days receives an average solar radiation of more than five kilowatts per square meter per day, considered to be a high level that provides enormous potential in terms of energy.

The solar energy program appears to be the most advanced and with the best opportunities for growth. Over the last decade, several solar parks have been built, providing more than 75 percent of the renewable energy produced locally.

But clean sources account for just five percent of the island’s electricity generation, an outlook that the authorities want to radically transform, setting an ambitious goal of 37 percent by 2030.

By Luis Brizuela
CANDELARIA, Cuba, Dec 20 2022 (IPS)

Mayra Rojas is one of a small but growing number of people in Cuba benefiting from the production of biogas, a renewable energy source still little used in a country highly dependent on fossil fuels.

The biodigester in the back of her house in the rural community of Carambola, Candelaria municipality in the province of Artemisa, 80 kilometers west of Havana, brings Rojas the benefits of not using firewood and electricity for cooking, with the consequent reduction in electric bills and cooking time.

It was built in 2011 with the help of her husband Edegni Puche, who worked in the installation of the gas pipes and other aspects.

Rojas and Puche, who raise pigs and grow fruits and vegetables on their small family farm, were advised by specialists from the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (Cubasolar) and the Movement of Biogas Users (MUB).

Rojas also received materials from the municipal government and the local pig company to build the small-scale Chinese-type fixed-dome biodigester of about six cubic meters in size.

She estimates that the total cost of the project ranged between 500 and 600 dollars at the exchange rate at the time.

Construction costs depend on the size, type and thickness of the material, as well as the characteristics of the site.

However, experts estimate that the average minimum cost for the construction of a small-scale biodigester – which more than covers the cooking needs of a household – currently stands at around 1,000 dollars in a country with an average monthly salary equivalent to 160 dollars at the official exchange rate.

Rojas says that “before, when we cleaned the pens, the manure, urine and waste from the pigs’ food piled up in the open air, in a corner of the yard. It stank and there were a lot of flies.”

The organic matter is now decomposed anaerobically by bacteria, but in a closed, non-polluting environment that provides methane gas as an energy resource, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.

Thanks to the alternative energy source Rojas can also keep her nails painted and her hair clean for longer.

It also helped her husband and two young children become more involved in household chores, cleaning the yard and taking care of the animals on the family farm, “and created greater awareness of environmental care.”

In addition, biogas technology provides biol and biosol – liquid effluent and sludge, respectively – which are ideal for fertilizing and restoring soils, “as well as watering and keeping plants green,” says Rojas, who has a lush garden where she grows varieties of exotic orchids.

Her biodigester has also proven useful to the community, because when there are blackouts due to tropical cyclones that frequently affect the island, “neighbors have come to heat up water and cook their food,” she adds.

There are an estimated 5,000 biodigesters in Cuba, with the potential to expand the network to 20,000 units, at least the small-scale ones, according to conservative estimates by experts.

More than 90 percent of Cuba’s electricity comes from burning fossil fuels in aging thermoelectric plants and diesel and fuel oil engines, in a nation where a significant percentage of the 3.9 million homes use electric power as the main energy source for cooking and heating water for bathing.

Residents of the Fontanar neighborhood in the Cuban capital are pleased with the incorporation of electric three-wheel vehicles to shorten distances between sectors within Boyeros, one of the municipalities that make up Havana. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Oct 17 2022 (IPS)

The incorporation of small electric vehicles for public transport, together with initiatives that encourage the use of bicycles, represent opportunities and challenges for Cuba to sustainably and inclusively combat the chronic problems in urban mobility.

“Connecting nearby places with electric means of transportation has been very timely and a relief,” said Dania Martínez, referring to the well-known Ecotaxis, six-seater vehicles that since June have been providing transportation between neighborhoods within the municipality of Boyeros, one of the 15 that make up Havana."Neomovilidad has aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an efficient transition to a low-carbon urban transport system in Havana, with a positive environmental impact." -- Reynier Campos

The teacher and her son were waiting for one of these vehicles at the Fontanar shopping center to take them to Wajay, their neighborhood on the outskirts of Havana, when IPS asked them what they thought about the service.

“Public transportation is not good in this area, far from the city center, and private taxis charge you a high fee. Just getting somewhere else five kilometers away can be difficult. Hopefully the three-wheelers will spread to other places,” Martinez said.

She was referring to light motorized vehicles that resemble some kinds of Asian autorickshaws, which are also known locally as motocarro or mototaxi, with a capacity for six people in the back.

With a range of 120 kilometers, these three-wheeled electric vehicles cover three two- to four-kilometer routes for a price of four pesos, or 17 cents at the official exchange rate in a country with an average monthly salary equivalent to about 160 dollars.

The fleet of 25 vehicles is part of the Neomovilidad project, implemented by the General Directorate of Transportation of Havana (DGTH) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Cuba.

For its implementation until 2023, it has a budget of 1.9 million dollars donated by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

“From its start in 2019, Neomovilidad has aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an efficient transition to a low-carbon urban transport system in Havana, with a positive environmental impact,” Reynier Campos, director of the project, told IPS.

During the first three months of operation, more than 135,000 people were transported, with an estimated monthly emission reduction potential of 6.12 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

On the downside, Ecotaxis can only recharge at night by connecting to the national power grid, 95 percent of which depends on the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity. Recharging is carried out at the three-wheel vehicles’ parking area and is done at night because it takes about six hours.

However, there are plans to contract power from solar parks of the state-owned electric utility Unión Eléctrica de Cuba, in order to offset consumption, executives said.

Other fleets of Ecotaxis provide service in the municipalities of La Habana Vieja, Centro Habana and Guanabacoa, also with UNDP support, and contribute to the national commitment to climate change mitigation actions.

Campos explained that Neomovilidad is a pilot project in Boyeros that could be extended to other Havana municipalities and cities of this Caribbean island nation of 11.1 million people, where public transportation is one of the most pressing long-term issues.

Reynier Campos, head of the Neomovilidad project, stressed that the initiative proposes to strengthen the legislative framework and promote public policies based on four lines that contribute to Sustainable Urban Mobility and help reduce carbon emissions in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Long-standing problem

With its 2.2 million residents and tens of thousands of people who live here on a short-term basis, Havana has 1.4 million people using transportation daily, one million of whom use the state-owned bus company Empresa de Ómnibus Urbanos, according to the Ministry of Transportation.

But the most recent official reports acknowledge that less than 50 percent of the fleet of public buses are currently operating in the capital.

The Cuban government blames the U.S. embargo as the main obstacle to the purchase of spare parts, as well as the lack of access to credit to repair and renovate buses, the main form of public transportation.

Problems with the availability of fuel and the number of drivers who find work in sectors with greater economic benefits also undermine an irregular service whose most visible face is the overcrowded stops at peak hours.

Figures indicate that 26 percent of the total estimated passengers in Havana use private taxis, which charge higher rates that not everyone can afford.

There are also non-agricultural transportation cooperatives with cabs and minibuses, as well as buses of the state-owned Transmetro Company, that provide services with set schedules.

About 80 percent of Latin America’s inhabitants live in towns and cities, and urban public transport remains essential in regional mobility plans.

Cuba is quietly taking steps to encourage the use of alternative vehicles and increase electricity production from renewable sources, which plans aim to raise from the current five to 37 percent by 2030.

As a result of flexible customs regulations for their importation, as well as assembly, it is estimated that half a million bicycles, motorcycles and electric three-wheelers are in circulation on the island, helping families get around.

However, high prices and sales only in foreign currency hinder their spread. Some of the most economical ones cost over 1,000 dollars, while others range from 2,000 to 5,000 dollars in government stores.

Mirelis Cordovés, driver of one of the electrocycles, makes 11 trips a day on the Fontanar-Wajay route, in the Boyeros municipality of the Cuban capital. She is pleased to have a job and a higher income to support her nine-year-old son, whom she is raising on her own. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Gender focus to reduce gaps

Neomovilidad stands out for encouraging the incorporation of women as drivers and promoting female employment.

“In addition to giving me a job, my income is higher, helping me support my nine-year-old son,” Mirelis Cordovés, a single mother who is one of the 13 women who now form part of the project’s team of drivers, told IPS.

Latin American nations such as Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama have adopted national policies related to the development of electric mobility.

In the case of Cuba, the proposal is “a vision for the development of electromobility from the Ministries of Transport, Energy and Mines and Industry, with guidelines and priority lines in public transport, including the conversion of vehicles,” said Campos.

He said that Neomovilidad proposes to promote public policies that contribute to Sustainable Urban Mobility.

The project urges considering the specific mobility needs of each social group and mainstreaming variables such as gender, age and accessibility, in order to reduce gaps.

The National Gender Equality Survey, conducted in 2016 but whose results were released in February 2019, showed that women primarily bear the burden of care work.

They are the ones who spend the most time taking children, family members or other people under their care to schools, hospitals or to buy food, the survey showed.

Transportation was identified as one of the top three problems for Cuban women, second only to low incomes and housing shortages.

The study drew attention to the correlation between time use and income inequality, because cheaper transportation options (public buses) increase travel delays.

Experts consulted by IPS consider that in the case of Cuba, a developing nation shaken by a three-decade economic crisis and pressing financial problems, there is no need to wait for solutions that demand large resources, if small and accessible alternatives can be devised to organize and facilitate mobility.

The Neomovilidad stand during the 2022 International Transport Fair at the Pabexpo fairgrounds in Havana. The project includes a pilot system of public bicycles, with six bicycle stations and 300 bikes, which should start offering its services before the end of 2022. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Integrating bicycles

As part of Neomovilidad, a pilot system of public bicycles should be inaugurated before the end of 2022, with six stations and 300 bicycles, also in the municipality of Boyeros.

The autonomous venture Inteliforja will operate the bicycle mobility system as a local development project, in conjunction with the DGTH, after winning a bidding process.

“The main activity will be the rental of bicycles at affordable prices. It will include other services such as parking, mechanical workshops, as well as complementary activities such as bicycle touring, package delivery and community activities to encourage the use of this means of transport,” explained Luis Alberto Sarmiento, one of the managers of Inteliforja.

Sarmiento told IPS that the central workshop will be located at the José Antonio Echeverría Technological University of Havana, where there are several engineering and architecture courses.

“We plan to install a solar panel-powered station there to charge students’ motorcycles and electric bicycles,” said the young entrepreneur.

“Farther in the future, when we have more resources, we plan to introduce bicycles or three-wheelers for the transportation of elderly and disabled people,” Sarmiento added.

Although electric mobility and the use of bicycles are seen as promoting more open, safer, cleaner and healthier cities, Cuba faces multiple challenges in this regard, starting with the need to lower the price of vehicles and ensure the stable availability of parts and components.

Other pending issues are the lack of recharging points for refueling outside the home, the lack of bicycle lanes or green lanes, in addition to the urgent need to repair a road network, 75 percent of which is classified as in fair or poor condition.

Félix Morffi, an 84-year-old retiree, shows a self-made solar heater and solar panels installed on the roof of his house in the municipality of Regla in Havana. His hope is that his house will soon become an experimental site for the use of renewable energies and that students will learn about the subject in situ. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Sep 23 2022 (IPS)

After making a model for a solar heater, installing solar panels and creating a device to dehydrate food with the help of the sun, Félix Morffi is turning his home into a space for the production and promotion of renewable energies in Cuba.

With two tanks, glass, aluminum sheets, as well as cinderblocks, sand and cement, the 84-year-old retiree created, in 2006, a solar heater that meets his household needs, which he proudly displays."We are willing to advise anyone who wants to install solar panels, heaters or dryers, everything related to renewable energies. We have knowledge and experience and have something to contribute." -- Félix Morffi

“You build it today and tomorrow you have hot water; anyone can do it, and if they have a bit of advice, all the better,” said the retired mid-level machine and tool repair technician.

A magnet magnetically treats the water by means of a system that purifies it and makes it fit for human consumption, without additional energy costs.

Also on the roof of the house, a cluster of 16 photovoltaic panels imported in 2019 provide five kilowatts of power (kWp) and support the work of his small automotive repair shop where he works on vehicles for state-owned companies and private individuals.

This is an independent enterprise carried out by Morffi on part of his land in Regla, one of the 15 municipalities that make up Havana.

In addition to covering his family’s household needs, he provides his surplus electricity to the national grid, the National Electric Power System (SEN).

As part of a contract with the Unión Eléctrica de Cuba under the Ministry of Energy and Mines, for the surplus energy “we receive an average of more than 2,000 pesos a month (about 83 dollars at the official rate), more or less the amount we pay for our consumption during the same period,” Morffi told IPS in an interview at his home.

But he said that the rate of 12.5 cents per kilowatt of energy delivered to the SEN perhaps should be increased if the government wants more people to produce solar energy.

Since 2014, Cuba has had a Policy for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources and their Efficient Use, and in 2019, Decree Law 345 established regulations to increase the share of renewables in electricity generation and steadily decrease the proportion represented by fossil fuels.

Other regulations have been added, such as the one that exempts foreign companies that carry out sustainable electricity generation projects from paying taxes on profits for eight years.

Other decisions seek to encourage self-sufficiency through decentralized generation with the sale of surplus energy to the SEN, as well as tariff exemptions to import photovoltaic systems, their parts and components for non-commercial purposes.

View of a solar dryer to dehydrate fruits, spices and tubers, made with recycled products by Cuban innovator Félix Morffi at his home in the municipality of Regla in Havana. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Great solar potential

According to studies, Cuba receives an average solar radiation of more than five kilowatts per square meter per day, considered to be a high level. There is enormous potential in this archipelago of more than 110,800 square kilometers which has an annual average of 330 sunny days.

By the end of 2021, some 500 million dollars were invested in expanding the share in the energy mix of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric sources, according to data from the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

The solar energy program appears to be the most advanced and with the best opportunities for growth.

The solar parks operating in the country contribute 238 megawatts, more than 75 percent of the renewable energy produced locally.

In addition, more than 160,000 of the nation’s 3.9 million homes, mostly in remote mountainous areas, receive electricity from solar modules, statistics show.

But clean sources account for barely five percent of the island’s electricity generation, an outlook that the authorities want to radically transform, setting an ambitious goal of 37 percent by 2030.

It is a matter of national security to substantially modify the energy mix in Cuba, which is highly dependent on fossil fuel imports and hit by cyclical energy shortages.

The island is in the grip of an energy crisis with blackouts of up to 12 hours or more in some areas, due to the deterioration of the network of 20 thermoelectric generation blocks with an average operating life of 30 years and in need of frequent repairs.

Added to this is the rise in the international prices of diesel and fuel oil, as well as the shortage of parts to keep the engines and generators powered by these fuels operational in Cuba’s 168 municipalities.

Solar energy is also used by Félix Morffi for aquaculture at his home in a Havana municipality: a photovoltaic panel feeds a solar hydraulic pump that maintains the flow of water in the pond for breeding varieties of ornamental fish and tilapia for family consumption. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Putting on the brakes

Government authorities point to the U.S. embargo as a factor holding back the growth of renewable energies, blaming it for discouraging potential investors and hindering the purchase of modern components and technologies.

On the other hand, inflation, the partial dollarization of the economy and the acute shortage of basic necessities, including food, leave most families without many options for turning to the autonomous production of clean energy, even if they recognize its positive environmental impact.

One of the authorized state-owned companies markets and assembles 1.0 kWp solar panel systems for the equivalent of about 2,300 dollars in a country where the average monthly salary is estimated at 160 dollars, although it is possible to apply for a bank loan for their installation.

People who spoke to IPS also mentioned the difficulties in storing up solar energy for use at night, during blackouts or on cloudy or rainy days, considering the very high price of batteries.

Morffi said more training is needed among personnel involved in several processes, and he cited delays of more than a year between the signing of the contract with Unión Eléctrica and the beginning of payment for the energy surpluses contributed to the SEN, as well as “inconsistency with respect to the assembly” of the equipment.

Although there is a national policy on renewable energy sources, “there is still a lot of ignorance and very little desire to do things, and do them well. Awareness-raising is needed,” he argued.

A prototype of an energy meter that records electricity generation and consumption at Félix Morffi’s house, in the Havana municipality of Regla. In recent years, several regulations have sought to encourage Cuba’s self-sufficiency in renewable energies, the sale of surpluses, as well as tariff exemptions to import photovoltaic systems, their parts and components for non-commercial purposes. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Combining renewable energies

Morffi believes that despite the economic conditions, with a little ingenuity people can take advantage of the natural elements, because “the sun shines for everyone; the air is there and costs you nothing, but your wealth is in your brain.”

He shows a dryer that uses the heat of the sun to dehydrate fruits, spices and tubers, which he assembled mostly with recycled products such as pieces of wood, nylon, acrylic and aluminum sheets.

Other equipment will require a significant investment, such as the three small wind turbines of 0.5 kWp each that he plans to import and a new batch of 4.0 kWp photovoltaic solar panels, for which he will have to apply for a bank loan.

At the back of his house, a small solar panel keeps the water flowing from a well for his barnyard fowl and an artificial pond holding a variety of ornamental fish as well as tilapia for the family to eat.

The construction of a small biodigester, about four cubic meters in size, is also at an advanced stage on his land, aimed at using methane gas from the decomposition of animal manure, for cooking.

According to Morffi, who manages these activities with the support of several family members, his home is on its way to becoming an experimental site for the use of renewable energies.

A specialized classroom may be built there, so that students can learn about the subject in situ.

So far in the design phase and in discussions with potential supporters, this local development project could even install “solar heaters in places in the community such as the doctor’s office, a day center and a cafeteria for the elderly,” said Morffi.

He said the idea should receive support from international donors, the government of the municipality of Regla, and Cubasolar, a non-governmental association dedicated to the promotion of renewable sources and respect for the environment, of which Morffi has been a member since 2004.

“We are willing to advise anyone who wants to install solar panels, heaters or dryers, everything related to renewable energies. We have knowledge and experience and have something to contribute,” he said.

A waiter serves coffee in a glass to a customer outside a coffee shop in Havana's Vedado neighborhood. Drinking coffee on the street and in homes is a custom in Cuba that has become increasingly difficult to maintain, due to scarcity and cost. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Sep 9 2022 (IPS)

While the Cuban government’s plans to increase production begin to bear fruit, Mireya Barrios confesses that she seeks every possible way to enjoy a cup of coffee every day, in the face of high prices and scarcity.

“If I don’t drink it I don’t feel good, I have a headache all day. For me drinking coffee is almost as important as eating,” said Barrios, who receives from family members quantities of coffee beans “brought from the east, where the best coffee in the country is produced,” which she mixes with chickpeas before roasting, to make it stretch farther.

After drinking her own cup, Barrios sells coffee as a street vendor in the early morning in the old town district of Centro Habana, one of the 15 municipalities that make up Havana.

“That sip of hot coffee is sometimes the entire breakfast of people who go to work and don’t have it at home because they leave in a hurry, or because they don’t have any coffee, which in addition to being scarce has become very expensive,” Barrios said in an interview with IPS.

Coffee is part of the basic food basket on the island. The government sells each month, per person and on a subsidized basis, a 115-gram package mixed with 50 percent chickpeas.

In recent months there have been delays in distribution due to the late arrival of raw materials, including packaging paper, given the financial problems faced by this Caribbean island country in the midst of the deepening structural crisis of its economy, which dates back three decades.

When consulted by IPS, residents in some of Cuba’s 168 municipalities admit that the coffee quota “is barely enough for seven to 10 days, if you’re thrifty.”

People often resort to the black market to acquire additional quantities. There, the same 115-gram package, often taken from stores or government establishments, is sold for the equivalent of half a dollar.

Better quality Cuban and foreign coffee brands are sold almost exclusively in stores in convertible currencies, unaffordable for many families who are paid wages in the devalued Cuban peso.

For example, a kilo of the national brand Cubita costs about 15 dollars in a country with an average monthly salary equivalent to 32 dollars, according to the official rate of 120 pesos to the dollar.

Roberto Martínez shows the nursery where he grows new coffee plants in the town of Palenque, Yateras municipality, in the eastern Cuban province of Guantánamo. A cooperation project with Vietnam created seed banks to renew and improve cuttings and thus boost the quality and yields of local coffee. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Boosting coffee production on the plains

Coffee arrived in Cuba in 1748 and production received a major boost after the Haitian revolution (1791-1804), with the immigration of French-Haitian farmers who settled in mountainous areas of the eastern part of the island where they set up coffee plantations, some of whose ruins were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in the year 2000.

During part of the 19th century, this country was the main exporter of coffee to Europe, exporting 29,500 tons in 1833, for example.

Statistics show that the historical record was reached in the 1961-1962 harvest: 60,300 tons. But after that production declined and currently volumes do not exceed 10,000 tons per year.

With a demand of 24,000 tons per year, this once important exporter actually has to import coffee from other countries, but in quantities that do not meet its needs.

According to Elexis Legrá, director of coffee and cocoa of the Agroforestry Group (GAF), attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, Cuba exports the Arabica variety, the highest quality, produced by coffee growers in mountainous areas.

The prospect is to start exporting small quantities of the Robusta variety, in greatest demand on the international market.

This year, the goal is to export some 2,700 tons, a figure similar to that of 2020, according to industry executives.

Experts say the main factors behind the drop in production are pests, tropical cyclones that frequently hit the island, the effects of climate change, the depopulation of rural and mountainous areas and obsolescent technology.

About 90 percent of national coffee production comes from the mountains in the four easternmost provinces: Holguín, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, where the highest quality varieties are grown, due to tradition and favorable microclimates.

However, since 2014 the Cuban government began identifying soils with adequate conditions for planting coffee in lowland regions, and training courses and technical advice have been provided to new coffee growers.

Sun-dried coffee beans in Palenque, in the municipality of Yateras in the province of Guantanamo. The easternmost of Cuba’s provinces is one of the largest local producers of coffee, where the highest quality varieties are grown, due to tradition and the favorable mountainous microclimates. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

“They used to say you couldn’t grow coffee here, and today we have some 2,000 bushes on just half a hectare,” Juan Miguel Fleitas told IPS. In addition to growing root vegetables, fresh produce and fruit and raising livestock, he also grows coffee on his family farm, Victoria 1, in the capital’s Guanabacoa municipality.

The 29-hectare farm, with six workers, belongs to the 26 de Julio Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPCs).

The UBPCs manage both private properties and state lands granted in usufruct in this socialist nation with a largely centralized economy.

“In the cooperative we have about eight hectares of coffee, dispersed. We are working on the introduction of Vietnamese coffee. It has a good yield, with a larger bean,” the farm’s head of agricultural production, Jorge Luis Gutiérrez, told IPS.

The beans came from seed banks from the east of the island, as part of the Cuba-Vietnam collaboration project, developed from 2015 to 2020.

In the 1970s, Cuban experts taught Vietnamese farmers and extension workers to plant this variety, in a nation then devastated by the war with the United States (1955-1975).

Vietnam is today the second largest exporter of the bean and shares its know-how with Cuba to achieve Robusta coffee cuttings that guarantee renewed plants with superior characteristics, in order to increase quality and yields.

Cuba’s “program to grow coffee in the lowlands” has set a goal of planting 7,163 hectares of coffee in production areas in several of the country’s 15 provinces.

So far, 1,200 hectares have been planted, another 700 hectares are in preparation, and the aim is to harvest more than 4,000 tons by 2030, according to official estimates.

By that date, Cuba’s “coffee production development program” aims to harvest 30,000 tons of coffee nationwide.

Bags of coffee are stacked on a handcart, to be sold at a state-run establishment in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood. The government provides 115 grams of coffee per month to Cuban families at subsidized prices, but in recent months it has been delivered with delays due to difficulties in obtaining supplies. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Organic coffee

Esperanza González is committed to growing coffee “without chemicals or herbicides, only using agroecological management techniques, earthworm humus, lots of organic matter and free-roaming chickens that help fertilize the soil with their excrement.”

González, who returned to Cuba after living for years in the Canadian province of Manitoba, was granted in 2017 in usufruct the eight-hectare Farm 878 that she renamed Doña Esperanza, located in the town of Santa Amelia, in the municipality of Cotorro, near the capital.

Since 2008, the Cuban government has granted unproductive and/or degraded land in usufruct to recuperate it and bolster food production.

This policy forms part of plans to strengthen food security in a country that is up to 70 percent dependent on food imports, whose rising prices lead to a domestic market with unsatisfied needs and shortages.

González, who through her own efforts imported “the equipment and the technology to be able to completely process our coffee,” told IPS that she hopes that with this year’s harvest they will “have a local quality product packaged under our own brand.”

However, she also highlighted “the exchange with coffee growers in the municipality of Segundo Frente (in the province of Santiago de Cuba), from whom we have received baskets to harvest coffee and give the final preparations to our crop.”

In 2021 “we harvested half a ton of good quality beans. We hope that little by little Doña Esperanza will become a lowlands coffee farm with higher volumes of export-quality and national-consumption production, which is so much needed,” she said.

Several initiatives with international support seek to strengthen the value chains associated with coffee production, restore the soils and ecosystems where coffee is grown, and identify markets for selling coffee grown with sustainable practices.

Prodecafé, an agroforestry cooperative development initiative that will run until 2027, was launched in February. With a budget of over 63 million dollars, it is expected to benefit 300 cooperatives in 27 municipalities in the four eastern provinces where coffee production is concentrated.

This joint project of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Ministry of Agriculture is aimed at strengthening the cocoa and coffee value chains and includes a gender approach by encouraging the inclusion of women in agroforestry activities.

Farmer Mayra Rojas says that the Chinese-type fixed-dome biodigester built in back of her home in Carambola, in the municipality of Candelaria in western Cuba, has become part of her daily life and a key factor in improving her family's quality of life. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Aug 2 2022 (IPS)

Standing in front of a blue flame on her stove, getting ready to brew coffee, Mayra Rojas says the biodigester built in the backyard of her home in western Cuba has become a key part of her daily life and a pillar of her family’s well-being.

“Biogas is a blessing,” says Rojas, a farmer who lives in the rural community of Carambola, in the municipality of Candelaria, located about 80 kilometers from Havana in the western province of Artemisa.

A pioneer in the use of this form of renewable energy in her town, she explains that with biogas “I spend less time cooking and pay less for electricity,” while the savings have enabled the gradual upgrade of her old wooden house to a more solid cinderblock structure.

In addition, “it doesn’t blacken the pots, like when I used firewood. And now I get my nails done and they last, as does my hair after I wash it,” says the environmental activist who raises awareness about caring for nature among elementary school children, in an interview with IPS at her farm.

She also specifies that greater support from her husband and two children in household chores, cleaning the yard and taking care of the animals on the family farm, “and greater awareness of environmental care,” are other benefits brought about by the use of this alternative energy.

In fact, it was her husband, Edegni Puche, who built the biodigester, for which the family put up part of the cost, while receiving contributions from the municipal government and the local pig farm company.

At the back of the house are the pigsties where they raise pigs, as well as fruit and ornamental trees, while on an adjoining lot Rojas is setting up an organoponic garden, where she will grow different vegetables.

As she pours the freshly brewed coffee, she says that “before, when the pens were cleaned, the manure, urine and waste from the pigs’ food accumulated in the open air, in a corner of the yard. It stank and there were a lot of flies.”

But in 2011 she learned about the potential of biodigesters, where organic matter is decomposed anaerobically by bacteria, but in a closed, non-polluting environment that provides gas as an energy resource.

Training workshops and advice from specialists from the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (Cubasolar) and the Movement of Biogas Users (MUB) encouraged people to build biodigesters, Rojas said.

Founded in 1983, MUB brings together some 3,000 farmers who use the technology in this Caribbean island nation of 11.1 million inhabitants.

An incentive to expand biogas in Cuba was provided by the international Biomas-Cuba project, which began in 2009 and is due to finish this year, focused on helping to understand the importance of renewable energy sources in rural environments, the role of biodigesters on farms and in waste treatment systems on pig farms, among other objectives.

With funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Cosude), the initiative is coordinated by the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station, a research center attached to the University of Matanzas in western Cuba, and involves related institutions in several of the country’s 15 provinces.

Mayra Rojas, her husband Edegni Puche and the couple’s youngest son stand in the backyard of their home. Family support for household chores, cleaning the yard and caring for the family’s animales, along with increased awareness of environmental care are other benefits that the biodigester has brought to the life of this rural Cuban woman. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Methane, from enemy to ally

Experts agree that the proper management of biological methane resulting from the decomposition of agricultural waste and livestock manure can generate value and be a cost-effective solution to prevent water and soil contamination.

As a potent greenhouse gas, methane has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, according to studies.

Therefore, its extraction and use as energy, especially in rural and peri-urban environments, can be a solution for reducing electricity consumption and for helping to combat climate change.

More than 90 percent of Cuba’s electricity generation is obtained by burning fossil fuels in aging thermoelectric plants and diesel and fuel oil engines, which pollute the air and contribute to global warming.

There are an estimated 5,000 biodigesters in Cuba, in a nation where a significant percentage of the 3.9 million homes use electricity as the main energy source for cooking and heating water for bathing.

“We have to make people more aware that the biodigester not only protects the environment and provides energy, but also brings savings, because the manure that is not used is money that is thrown away,” says Rojas.

It also provides biol and biosol, liquid effluent and sludge, respectively – end products of biogas technology that are rich in nutrients, ideal for fertilizing and restoring soils, “as well as watering and keeping plants green,” says Rojas as she proudly shows the varieties of orchids in her leafy yard.

Her biodigester has also proven its usefulness to the community, because when there are blackouts due to tropical cyclones that frequently affect the island, “neighbors have come to heat up water and cook their food,” she adds.

Mayra Rojas turns on biogas on her small stove to brew coffee in her home in the rural community of Carambola, in the municipality of Candelaria, in the western Cuban province of Artemisa. She says that with this clean energy source she spends less time cooking and saves electricity. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Obstacles

Rojas says that a major impediment to the spread of biodigesters in local communities and the country is the island’s economy, whose three-decade crisis was aggravated by the COVID pandemic and the tightening of the U.S. embargo.

The decapitalization of the main industries and financial problems are major factors in the low levels of production of cement, steel bars, sand and other elements used to make biodigesters, which are also necessary to reduce the high housing deficit and fix the portion of homes that are in poor condition.

The availability of manure is another stumbling block with a deficient pig and cattle herd, which will have to wait for the most recent government measures aimed at stimulating their growth and balancing it with domestic demand for meat to take effect.

“I received the support of the municipal government, the local pig company, plus the technical advice from Cubasolar” to build the six-cubic-meter Chinese-type fixed dome biodigester, explains Rojas. “But not all families have enough animals or can afford to build one.”

Perhaps that is why in Carambola it is only possible to find five biodigesters in a community of about 120 homes and 400 local residents, she added.

“Building a biodigester has become too expensive,” acknowledged Lázaro Vázquez, coordinator of Cubasolar in San Cristóbal, a municipality adjacent to Candelaria, who provided advice for the construction of the one on the Rojas farm, which is considered small-scale (up to 24 cubic meters per day).

Although costs depend on factors such as the size, type and thickness of the material, and even the characteristics of the site, specialists estimate that the average minimum cost for the construction of a small-scale biodigester cooker for household use is around 1,000 dollars, in a country with an average monthly salary of about 160 dollars at the official exchange rate.

Vázquez told IPS that low-interest loans should be made available, because “it will always be more economical to make biodigesters using domestic products.”

He pointed out that in Cuba “there is potential” to expand the network of biodigesters, which could reach 20,000 units, at least small-scale ones, according to conservative estimates by experts.

Two pigs stand in a pen built next to the biodigester in the backyard of the home of farmer Mayra Rojas. Experts agree that proper management of the biomethane resulting from the decomposition of agricultural waste and livestock manure can generate value and be a profitable solution to prevent water and soil contamination in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Biogas, circular economy and local development

During a Jul. 21 session of Cuba’s single-chamber parliament, economic stimulus measures were announced, including an aim to increase the production and use of biofuels and biogas.

“Although it can be used in transportation…the main benefit of the biodigester is environmental and the efficiency of biogas lies in its final use,” José Antonio Guardado, a member of Cubasolar’s National Board of Directors and coordinator of MUB, explained to IPS.

In this regard, Guardado reflected that the direct use of biogas for cooking is much more efficient than if it is transformed into electrical energy or used to power a vehicle.

The head of MUB recommended “understanding the value of biogas technology in a comprehensive manner, taking advantage of all of its end products. This includes the supply of basic nutrients for soil fertilization that has a direct impact on food production.”

This would contribute to the closing of cycles of the circular economy, based on the principles of reduce, recycle, reuse, which promotes the use of green energies and diversification of production to achieve resilience.

“Evidently this final product, from biogas technology, will only be achievable locally, with the participation of all the actors of the Cuban economy, and social inclusion,” Guardado said.

Ministerial Order 395, issued in 2021 by the Ministry of Energy and Mines, stipulated that each of Cuba’s 168 municipalities must have a biogas development program and strategy, and must coordinate their management and implementation with their respective provinces.

The appointment of a government official to head the commission, to prioritize the allocation of materials to build biodigesters, seems to confirm the authorities’ decision to promote sustainable energy development from the local level.

Farmer José Antonio Sosa, known as Ché, stresses the importance of taking into account the direction of the land for planting, and the use of live or dead barriers to prevent rains from washing away the topsoil to lower areas, thus combating soil degradation in Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, May 23 2022 (IPS)

Thorny bushes and barren soil made it look like a bad bet, but Cuban farmer José Antonio Sosa ignored other people’s objections about the land and gave life to what is now the thriving La Villa farm on the outskirts of Havana.

“The land was a mess, covered with sweet acacia (Vachellia farnesiana) and sickle bush (Dichrostachys cinérea), with little vegetation and many stones. People asked me how I was going to deal with it. With an axe and machete I gradually cleared the undergrowth, in sections,” Sosa told IPS.

Now there are plots of different varieties of fruit trees, vegetables and tubers on the 14 hectares that this farmer received from the State in usufruct in 2010, as part of a government policy to reduce unproductive land and boost food production.

The crops feed his family, while contributing to social programs and sales to the community, after part of the produce is delivered to the Juan Oramas Credit and Services Cooperative, to which the farm located in the municipality of Guanabacoa, one of the 15 municipalities of the Cuban capital, belongs.

On the farm, where he works with his family and an assistant, Sosa produces cow and goat milk, raises pigs and poultry, and is dreaming of farming freshwater fish in a small pond in the not too distant future.

La Villa is in the process of receiving “sustainably managed farm” certification. The farm and Sosa represent a growing effort by small Cuban farmers to recuperate degraded land and use environmentally friendly techniques.

The restoration of unproductive and/or degraded lands is also connected to the need to increase domestic food security, in a country highly dependent on food imports, whose rising prices mean a domestic market with unsatisfied needs and cycles of shortages such as the current one."The guideline foresees implementing new financial economic instruments or improving existing ones by 2030 in order to achieve neutrality in land degradation." -- Jessica Fernández

At the end of 2021, Cuba had 226,597 farms, 1202 of which had agroecological status while 64 percent of the total – some 146,000 – were working towards gaining agroecological certification, according to official statistics.

Sosa, who has been known as “Che” since he was a child, said the use of natural fertilizers and animal manure has made a difference in the recovery and transformation of the soil.

“It is also important to pay attention to the way crops are cultivated or harvested, to avoid compaction,” the farmer said.

Studies show that changes in land use, inadequate agricultural practices (including the intensive use of agricultural machinery and irrigation), the increase in human settlements and infrastructure and the effects of climate change are factors that are accelerating desertification and soil degradation in this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million people.

Sosa stressed the importance of paying attention to the direction of the land for planting, and the use of living or dead barriers “to prevent the water from carrying the topsoil to lower areas when it rains.”

These cucumbers were grown using agroecological techniques on the La Villa farm, located in the municipality of Guanabacoa, one of the 15 that make up Havana, Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Drought and climate change

In this archipelago covering 109,884 square kilometers, 77 percent of the soils are classified as not very productive.

They are affected by one or more adverse factors such as erosion, salinity, acidity, poor drainage, low fertility and organic matter content, or poor moisture retention.

The most recent statistics show that 35 percent of the soil in Cuba presents some degree of degradation.

But at 71 years of age, Sosa, who has worked in the countryside all his life, has no doubt that climate change is hurting the soil.

“The rain cycles have changed,” Sosa said. “When I was young, in the early 1960s, my father would plant taro (Colocasia esculenta, a tuber that is widely consumed locally) in March, around the 10th or so, and by the 15th it would be raining heavily. That is no longer the case. This April was very dry, especially at the end of the month, and so was early May.”

He also referred to the decrease in crop yields and quality, “as soils become hotter and water is scarcer.”

Several studies have corroborated important changes in Cuba’s climate in recent years, related to the increase in the average annual temperature, the decrease in cloud cover and stronger droughts, among other phenomena.

According to forecasts, the country’s climate will tend towards less precipitation and longer periods without rain, and by 2100 the availability of water potential could be reduced by more than 35 percent.

But more intense hurricanes are also expected, atmospheric phenomena that can discharge in 48 hours half of the average annual rainfall, with the consequent stress and severe soil erosion.

Although the least productive lands are located in the east, and Cuba’s so-called semi-desert is limited to parts of the southern coast of Guantánamo, the easternmost of the 15 provinces, forecasts indicate that the semi-arid zones could expand towards the west of the island.

Gloria Gómez (right), director of Natural Resources, Prioritized Ecosystems and Climate Change, and Jessica Fernández, head of the Climate Change Department of the General Directorate of Environment of Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, confirm the government’s intention to promote the use of credits, insurance and taxes as incentives for farmers to improve soils. CREDIT: Luis Brizuela/IPS

Goals

In addition to being a State Party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, since 2008 Cuba has been promoting the Program for Country Partnership, also known as the National Action Program to Combat Desertification and Drought; Sustainable Land Management.

Likewise, the Cuban government is committed to the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed within the United Nations in 2015.

In SDG 15, which involves life on land, target 15.3 states that “By 2030, combat desertification, restore degraded land and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a land degradation-neutral world.”

According to Sosa, the increase in soil degrading factors requires more efforts to restructure its physical and chemical characteristics.

In addition, he said, mechanisms should be sought to prioritize irrigation, taking into account that many sources are drying up or shrinking due to climate variability.

“In my case, I irrigate the lower part of the farm with a small system connected to the pond. But in the higher areas of the farm I depend on rainfall,” he said.

The construction of tanks or ponds to collect rainwater, in addition to the traditional reservoirs, are ideal alternatives for this Caribbean country with short, low-flow rivers and highly dependent on rainfall, which is more abundant during the May to October rainy season.

But farmers like Sosa require greater incentives: there is a need for more training on the importance of sustainable management techniques, and for economic returns, as well as financial and tax support, in order to make agroecological practices more widespread.

The use of natural fertilizers and animal manure is one of the keys to the restoration and transformation of the once degraded soils covered with thorny bushes of what is now La Villa farm, in the municipality of Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

In 2019, Cuba approved the National Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Program.

“The guideline foresees implementing new financial economic instruments or improving existing ones by 2030 in order to achieve neutrality in land degradation,” Jessica Fernández, head of the Climate Change department of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, told IPS.

The plan is to enhance the use of credits, insurance and taxes as economic incentives for farmers, based on soil improvement and conservation, and to account for the current expenses destined to environmental solutions to determine the total expenses for soil conservation, the official added.

“We are in talks and studies with the Central Bank of Cuba to gradually introduce green banking,” Gloria Gómez, director of natural resources, prioritized ecosystems and climate change at the ministry, told IPS.

“This service will seek to promote and finance projects that provide solutions to environmental problems through loans with lower interest rates, longer repayment periods, incentives for green products and services, or eco-labeling,” she said.

Since 2000, the Ministry of Agriculture has been developing the National Program for Soil Improvement and Conservation, and in January the Policy for Soil Conservation, Improvement and Sustainable Management and Fertilizer Use came into effect.

At the same time, the Cuban State’s plan to combat climate change, better known as Tarea Vida, in force since 2017, also includes actions to mitigate soil vulnerabilities.

In the last five years, the principles of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) were applied to more than 2525 hectares, while one million of the more than six million hectares of agricultural land in the country received some type of benefit, statistics show.

Other national priorities are related to increasing the forested area to 33 percent, extending the areas under SLM by 150,000 hectares and improving 65 percent of agricultural land by the end of the current decade.

Wind turbines at the Gibara 1 wind farm generate electricity in the municipality of the same name in Holguín province, eastern Cuba. The aim is for at least 37 percent of Cuba’s electricity to come from clean energies by 2030; this is a first step towards a much more ambitious goal that envisions an energy mix made up 100 percent of domestic sources. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Feb 28 2022 (IPS)

Cuba has readjusted its plans to achieve at least 37 percent of electricity from clean energy by 2030, a promising but risky challenge for a nation that is a heavy consumer of fossil fuels and has persistent financial problems.

This is a first step towards a much more ambitious goal: an energy mix made up of 100 percent domestic sources, in order to achieve sovereignty.

Approved in 2014, the Policy for the Prospective Development of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and their Efficient Use projected that solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power would account for 24 percent of electricity generation by 2030.

Currently, 95 percent of the electricity produced in this Caribbean island nation comes from burning fossil fuels, including natural gas.

Based on government indications and research by the Electric Union and Cuban universities, “it was determined that we can reach 37 percent (by 2030) with RES,” said Rosell Guerra, director of Renewable Energies at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, in an interview with IPS.

The official pointed out that since it is an island nation, “Cuba is not interconnected with any major power system,” which means that as the use of RES gradually expands, “it is important to ensure the stability of the electric system and the quality of the service, voltage and frequency, as well as the storage of electric power for the night time.”

This archipelago consumes just over eight million tons of fuel annually, of which 4.4 million tons are used for electricity.

Nearly 40 percent of the fuel must be imported, mainly fuel oil and diesel, which have higher prices on the international market.

The country spends some 2.8 billion dollars annually on the electricity sector, including the purchase of fuel, the operation and maintenance of aging thermoelectric plants and the purchase of energy from independent producers.

“We have no alternative, the country cannot continue to pay such large energy bills, which together with food purchases (estimated at some two billion dollars annually), are our largest,” Guerra stressed.

Cuba’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions decreased in the last five years, to 22.9 million tons in 2020, according to international data, but energy generating activities are still the main domestic sources of polluting gases.

Achieving 37 percent generation with sustainable energies “will mean the emission of nine million fewer tons of carbon dioxide per year,” added the official.

A floating power plant arrives at Havana port from Turkey in November 2021. In Cuba, 95 percent of the electricity produced comes from the burning of oil and oil derivatives, together with natural gas. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Picking up the pace

The largest island nation in the Caribbean will have to step on the gas if it wishes, within eight years, to have 3954 megawatts per hour (MW/h) of installed capacity in renewable energies, as outlined in the government’s plan.

“The implementation of the RES Policy is behind schedule; by the end of 2021 we should have had 649 MW/h in operation, but today only 47 percent of what was planned, 304 MW/h, has been achieved,” Guerra acknowledged.

He attributed the delay to the country’s three-decade-long economic crisis, with its main sources of income impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led the authorities to request a moratorium on debt interest payments to international creditors.

Guerra also referred to the effects of the U.S. government’s embargo against Cuba, in force since 1962, which hinders access to credit and technology, increases the cost of freight for transporting fuel and keeps investors away.

However, he clarified, since 2014 “500 million dollars were invested in RES,” which provide energy for some 300,000 households at noon, in a country of more than 3.8 million homes and 11.2 million inhabitants.

The shift in the energy mix by 2030 will require an investment of some six billion dollars “that will have to be sought from external sources, whether through credits or foreign direct investment,” since the country is not in a position to assume the cost alone, said the official.

He pointed out that “in addition to the economic and environmental analysis, the vision in this matter is based on the need to move towards energy independence.”

Ongoing projects

Cuba has eight thermal plants with an average operating life of more than 30 years.

Most of these plants process heavy domestic crude oil, with a sulfur content between seven and 18 degrees API, which makes more frequent repairs necessary, that are sometimes postponed due to lack of financing.

Malfunctions in the facilities have caused generation crises in recent years, the most recent from April to July 2021, affecting industrial production and Cuban families, most of whom use electricity to cook food, among other uses.

Distributed in Cuba’s 168 municipalities, fuel engines and diesel generators, also suffering from a lack of parts, complement the electric power system.

The rest of the electricity is generated by the natural gas produced along with domestic oil, floating units (patanas), together with five percent renewable energies.

The solar program appears to be the most advanced and with the best growth opportunities in a nation whose solar radiation averages more than five kilowatts per square meter per day, which is considered high.

Solar parks contribute 238 MW/h, a little more than 78 percent of the renewable energy in the country, according to the statistics.

Guerra said that “Cuban universities are very proactive with RES and energy efficiency, with several innovative and applied science projects, and with funding, both nationally and in collaboration with the European Union.”

Marlenis Águila, an expert with the Renewable Energy Directorate, told IPS that “some of these programs or projects are based on national technologies, applied on farms, and with results in the field of agro-energy, which are worth replicating widely.”

Both experts referred to the installation, especially in rural areas, of more than 1,000 pumping systems with solar panels that save energy and provide water to livestock and farming families, while a 4,000 cubic meter biogas plant is planned to generate electricity.

“There are seven biogas plants in the country. They are small, the largest has a capacity of 250 kW/h, but they contribute during peak hours, when they are most needed,” said Guerra.

In addition, two new bioelectric plants with a capacity of 40 MW/h, three wind farms (151 MW/h) and two small hydroelectric plants (3.4 MW/h) are under construction, among other projects in different phases with foreign investment and credit management.

A store specializing in household appliances sells equipment to obtain electricity from renewable sources in the municipality of Playa, Havana. In recent years, Cuba approved regulations with tariff and tax benefits for foreign investors who participate in the expansion of renewable energies, and began selling solar panels and heaters to promote their use by the public. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Opportunities

The second edition of the Renewable Energy Fair, scheduled to take place in Havana Jun. 22-24, will seek to attract foreign investors for the transition to renewable energies in Cuba.

“The first fair, in January 2018, was modest in size but very useful,” Guerra said. “Prestigious international agencies came and transferred knowledge to us. This time we intend to emphasize solar energy – both photovoltaic and thermal – and biomass.”

Representatives of international agencies, projects and companies such as the International Renewable Energy Agency, the World Wind Energy Association, the International Solar Alliance, the Green Climate Fund, the Belt and Road Energy Partnership, the French Development Agency and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are expected to attend.

In recent years, Cuba approved regulations to encourage the presence of foreign investors in the development of sustainable energy, both in large and small local projects.

Resolution 223 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices, published in June 2021, exempts wholly foreign-owned companies implementing electricity generation projects with RES from paying taxes on profits for eight years, from the start of their commercial operations.

Other regulations, such as Decree-Law No. 345 of 2019, contain incentives to promote self-supply, the sale of surpluses to the National Electric System, as well as tariff and tax benefits for individuals and legal entities that use them.

The government strategy also proposes the installation of the more efficient LED bulbs in public lighting and the sale of solar water heaters and efficient equipment, which despite their high prices are aimed at expanding the use of renewable energies among the public.

A worker walks through the facilities of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in the central province of Cienfuegos. Most of Cuba's thermoelectric plants, almost all of which were built with technology from the now defunct Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist bloc, have a lifespan of 30 to 35 years, and it would take 40 to 80 million dollars to repair and upgrade each one, according to industry executives. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Oct 14 2021 (IPS)

With aging infrastructure and problems with fuel supplies, Cuba is facing a crisis in its electric power generation system, which could accelerate plans to increase the share of renewable sources in the energy mix.

In recent weeks, blackouts have been widespread in the 15 provinces of this Caribbean island nation.

Breakdowns in several of the eight thermoelectric plants and delayed maintenance in 18 of its 20 generating blocks are the cause of the generation deficits, according to the authorities.

In addition, there are malfunctions in the distribution systems – lines, substations, transformers – due to the lack of spare parts.

Cuba produces half of the fuel burned in several of its thermoelectric plants, but a significant portion depends on imports.

Under bilateral agreements, Cuba should receive some 53,000 barrels per day of oil and derivatives from Venezuela. But the collapse of that South American country under the weight of its lingering crisis means that shipments are irregular, according to media reports, although the local government does not provide precise figures."The operating reserves in the power system are low and at times have been below what is required to meet consumer energy demand, which means the power supply is necessarily and inevitably affected.” -- Liván Arronte

There is also a reported decrease in the volumes of natural gas associated with oil, used in facilities on the northwest coast, a deficit that can only be overcome by means of new oil wells, according to industry executives.

“The operating reserves in the power system are low and at times have been below what is required to meet consumer energy demand, which means the power supply is necessarily and inevitably affected,” Minister of Energy and Mines Liván Arronte said on television on Sept. 14.

For Cuban families, the current crisis is reminiscent of the prolonged power outages of the early 1990s, when after the collapse of the then Soviet Union, the island lost its main fuel supplier.

In September 2019, another energy crisis occurred when the administration of then President Donald Trump (2017-Jan 2021) took steps to prevent the arrival of tankers to the island, as part of measures to stiffen the economic and financial embargo that the United States has had in place against Cuba since 1962.

“The U.S. government has dedicated itself to threatening and blackmailing companies that supply fuel to Cuba, and this is a qualitative leap in the intensification and application of unconventional measures against those involved in international transportation, without any legal or moral authority,” stated the 2020 annual report on the embargo.

Authorities in Cuba argue that the sanctions hinder access to credit to purchase parts and other inputs, which delays the necessary maintenance of the thermal plants.

Cuba’s dwindling coffers are in no condition to take on extra expenses, given the effects of three decades of economic crisis and the impact of the covid-19 pandemic that has made it necessary to prioritise imports of medical supplies and food.

The power grid is in critical condition and the still high level of dependence on fuel imports is a factor of vulnerability and undermines the country’s projected energy sovereignty and independence, analysts warn.

A wind farm located near the city of Gibara, in the eastern province of Holguín. Cuba has set a goal of steadily reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing the use of renewable sources in electricity generation to 24 percent, by 2030. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Aging infrastructure

Cuba has an installed potential of more than 6500 MW/h, but the real generation capacity is only half of that, and when several generator units are disconnected from the National Electric System (SEN), it is impossible to meet peak demand of 3300 to 3500 MW/h.

The country has eight thermal power plants with 20 generation blocks and a total capacity of some 2600 MW/h, equivalent to 40 percent of the electricity that can potentially be generated in this island nation of 11.2 million people.

Several of them are able to handle Cuba’s extra-heavy crude (between seven and 18 degrees API), whose sulphur content of seven to eight percent increases corrosion in the boilers, making it necessary to reduce the time between routine maintenance, to 50 to 70 days a year.

Cuba has an oil and accompanying gas production equivalent to 3.5 million tons per year (22 million barrels), from which 2.6 million tons (16.3 million barrels) of crude oil and approximately one billion cubic meters of natural gas are obtained, according to 2020 data released by the official media.

The network of power plants forms the backbone of a system that is complemented in the 15 provinces with fuel oil engines and diesel generators, which have also been hit by the shortage in spare parts and which use part of the 150 to 200 million dollars a month in fuel imports, according to official reports.

The rest of Cuba’s electricity comes from local liquefied petroleum gas (nearly eight percent), renewable sources (five percent) and three percent from floating units (patanas), which also use fossil fuels, in Mariel Bay, 45 km west of Havana.

With one exception, the thermoelectric plants, mainly built with technology from the defunct Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist bloc, have passed their 30 to 35 year lifespan, and 40 to 80 million dollars are needed to repair each plant, according to industry leaders.

To alleviate the current crisis, the government announced an investment scheme aimed at reactivating currently unused generation potential and prioritising the staggered maintenance programme.

“The strategy’s projects include four thermal generation blocks of 200 MW/h each, which will use national crude oil and … today there are projects in different stages to produce 3500 MW/h from renewable sources, which have been affected by the current crisis,” said Arronte.

The Belgian company BDC-Log Servicios Logísticos y Transporte is optimising its operation through the use of solar panels installed on the roofs of its warehouses in the Mariel Special Development Zone, in the western province of Artemisa. The policy for the development of renewable sources in Cuba, approved in 2014, aims to encourage foreign investment in large and small projects, in order to boost energy efficiency and self-sufficiency. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Renewable energies: ups and downs

In 2014, the Cuban government approved a “Policy for the development of renewable energy sources and efficient energy use by 2030”, which aims to gradually reduce the use of fossil fuels and sets a target for 24 percent of energy to come from clean sources by that year.

The policy is also geared towards fomenting foreign investment, in both large and small local projects, with the objective of improving energy efficiency and self-sufficiency, with installations mainly connected to the national grid.

According to some estimates, more than three billion dollars in financing will be needed in order to develop more than 2000 MW/h of new capacity in renewable sources over the next nine years.

Decree-Law No. 345 passed in 2019 on the development of renewable sources contains incentives to promote self-supply from clean energy, the sale of surplus energy to the national grid, as well as tariff and tax benefits for individuals and legal entities that use these sources.

The law also proposes the installation of the most efficient LED bulbs in public streetlights, the sale of solar water heaters and efficient appliances, as well as public education campaigns on the need to save energy.

Cuba ended 2020 with an installed capacity of almost 300 MW/h from renewable sources, some of whose installations were supported by international projects and institutions.

Studies indicate that the expansion of renewable sources could reduce the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation by 2.3 million tons a year and could cut carbon dioxide emissions by eight million tons.

However, these projections clash with the high cost of technologies to obtain energy from sunlight, wind, water and biomass.

In Cuba, which aims to develop all of these sources, the solar energy programme is the most advanced, in a country with average solar radiation of more than five kilowatts per square meter per day, which is considered high.

In late July, resolutions were published allowing people to import solar power systems, free of customs duties and without commercial purposes, as well as equipment, parts and components that generate or operate as renewable energy sources.

Some chain stores also sell solar panels for more than 1,500 dollars per unit, compared to the monthly salaries of Cubans that range from 87 to 400 dollars.

Although the state can buy surplus energy from private consumers, people consulted by IPS said it was not worth the cost of purchasing and setting up a photovoltaic system and the several years needed to recover the initial investment.

Another pending issue is the technology to accumulate solar energy for use at night.

Water sowing includes the construction of low ditches and dikes that slow down the speed at which rainfall runs off the land, stimulate its infiltration into the soil and channel it into ponds for later recovery. The technique gives farmer José Antonio Casimiro, at his Finca del Medio farm in Siguaney, Taguasco municipality in central Cuba abundant water all year round. CREDIT Courtesy of Finca del Medio/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Jun 21 2021 (IPS)

Cuban farmer José Antonio Casimiro found in the ageold technique of sowing water an opportunity to meet his farm’s water needs and mitigate the increasingly visible effects of climate change.

For 28 years, Casimiro and his family have been applying sustainable management methods on their 10-hectare farm called Finca del Medio, located in the center of the long narrow island of Cuba, which is just over 1,200 km long from west to east.

In 1993, when Casimiro and his wife, Mileidy Rodríguez, decided to settle permanently with their children on their grandparents’ family farm, the place was rundown, with severely eroded soils on rough terrain and without fences."We have adapted the technique to our situation and possibilities. We place as many barriers as possible to retain the water and make it run as little as possible on the surface, so that it seeps into the ground where we want it to.” -- José Antonio Casimiro

With the aid of tools born of popular inventiveness, and sheer determination, the family is now self-sufficient in rice, beans, different types of tubers, vegetables, milk, eggs, honey, meat, fish and more than 30 kinds of fruit.

The new generations of the Casimiro-Rodriguez family have also become involved in food production and have managed to turn the farm into a model for agroecology and permaculture, as well as for education and the teaching of good agricultural and environmental practices.

Prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the family farm was visited by tourists taking guided tours where they could interact with the crops and animals, swim in the reservoir, sample organic foods and learn about how a local farm is run.

One of the techniques applied has been water sowing, used for hundreds of years in communities in southern Spain and South America’s Andes mountains, in order to reduce rainfall runoff into rivers and seas and preserve part of it for human, agricultural and livestock activities.

“We have adapted the technique to our situation and possibilities. We place as many barriers as possible to retain the water and make it run as little as possible on the surface, so that it seeps into the ground where we want it to,” Casimiro explained to IPS via WhatsApp from the Finca del Medio near the town of Siguaney, Taguasco municipality, province of Sancti Spíritus, some 350 km east of Havana.
The strategy includes the construction of low ditches and dikes that slow the rate at which water drains into the ground, stimulate its infiltration into the subsoil and channel it into ponds for later recovery.

According to Casimiro, in recent weeks “some 200 mm of rain fell and the water has still not left the farm. We have a small reservoir with a capacity of 54,000 cubic meters of water and containment barriers that accumulate thousands of cubic meters more that infiltrate slowly into the ground. “

He said the infiltrated water does not only benefit his farm.

“A farmer on a neighbouring farm has not had to haul water from distant sources since we started using this technique. His well now has water all year round,” Casimiro said.

A woman operates a hand pump to draw water for household chores in the Martha Abreu Basic Production Unit community in the central province of Cienfuegos. Projected increased dry periods in Cuba, due to the climate crisis, calls for stimulating initiatives for greater harvesting of rainfall, as well as encouraging the saving and reuse of water. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

At Finca del Medio, part of the rainwater is collected mainly for domestic use, such as washing and cleaning. Using pumping systems powered by solar panels, wind systems and hydraulic rams, the liquid is pumped from the pond to higher elevations.

“We have more than 100,000 litres of water in tanks, ponds and other places, which is channeled using gravity,” the farmer said.

Casimiro believes it would be feasible to stimulate initiatives for harvesting more rainwater, as well as to encourage water saving and reuse.

Living with the climate crisis

Climate change is not a minor issue for this country located on the largest island in the Caribbean, whose elongated, narrow shape gives rise to short, low-flow rivers dependent on rainfall, which is more abundant in the May to October wet season, and during the passage of tropical cyclones.

From 2014 to 2017, the country faced the worst drought in 115 years, affecting 70 percent of the national territory.

With average annual rainfall of 1,330 mm, several studies predict that Cuba’s climate will tend towards less precipitation, higher temperatures and more intense droughts, and that by 2100 water availability could be reduced by more than 35 percent.

“Drought is one of the climatic extremes we face today and it creates a complex situation that requires science, monitoring, innovation and evaluation,” said Science, Technology and Environment Minister Elba Rosa Pérez during a televised appearance in April 2020.

Several of Cuba’s 15 provinces show insufficient rainfall levels, despite being in the middle of the rainy season.

From December to April the rainfall level was only 54 percent of the normal average, which qualifies as a “severely dry” period, explained Antonio Rodríguez, president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, on television on May 13.

Filled to around 25 percent of capacity, the dams in the most critical situation are located in the capital, where 2.2 million of the country’s 11.2 million inhabitants live, said the official.

View of a turbine used to pump drinking water in the town of Cauto Cristo, in the eastern province of Granma. In recent years, Cuba has promoted investments to expand and modernise its water infrastructure, with emphasis on more than a dozen water transfers, engineering works considered strategic to divert water over long distances and support agricultural development plans. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

“We should take better advantage of rainwater. It is very good water for washing, scrubbing and cleaning. I remember that in my childhood many houses had gutters on the roofs to collect rainwater, store it in tanks and use it later. That has been lost,” Asunción Batista, an older resident of the city of Holguín, 685 km east of Havana, told IPS.

The challenge of making better use of water

The island has a storage capacity of more than nine billion cubic meters, distributed in more than 240 reservoirs that together with a network of treatment plants guarantee access to drinking water for more than 95 percent of the population, and supply industries and agriculture.

In recent years, with the support of international cooperation funds, the government has sought to expand and modernise the country’s water infrastructure.

There are more than a dozen water transfers, strategic engineering works to control possible floods and divert water over long distances to support agricultural production, in addition to supplying water to communities and tourist resorts.

However, 42 percent of piped water is still lost due to leaks in the aging pipelines, official data shows.

“An agrarian policy that stimulates and incentivises the sowing of water by farmers could be positive for the country and for families in rural and semi-rural areas,” Casimiro said.

He stressed that “farmers are aware of the effects of climate change, but the cost of what needs to be done to prepare for it is often beyond their reach. The educational level is also low,” the farmer added.

A strategy that provides some inputs and encourages a culture of rainwater harvesting, as well as more rational use, could increase water availability in areas where access to water could be affected in the not so distant future.

The Cuban government has focused on the local level as one of the fundamental aspects of its Development Plan until 2030, while it considers food production a matter of national security.

Since 2017, Law No.124 on Terrestrial Waters has been guiding the integrated, sustainable management of water.

In addition, the country has also committed to meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the sixth of which involves access to clean water and sanitation for the entire population by 2030.

High-density polyethylene pipe is laid on a street in the Cuban capital, where the Aguas de La Habana water company is upgrading the water supply networks in the municipality of Centro Habana. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Feb 23 2021 (IPS)

With the construction of aqueducts, water purification and desalination plants, and investments to upgrade hydraulic infrastructure, Cuba is seeking to manage the impacts of droughts and floods that are intensifying with climate change.

The “initiative to strengthen hydrological monitoring” in Cuba, signed in Havana on Feb. 11, aims to boost capacities to measure, transmit, process and analyse hydrological variables and systematically assess water availability at the national level.

According to water sector authorities, the modernisation and optimisation of hydrological observation networks will be an essential component of early warning systems for floods and droughts.

The initiative will be implemented by the National Water Resources Institute (INRH), with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funding from Russia.

It also plans to redesign the observation network for both groundwater and surface water quality, explained INRH Director of Hydrology and Hydrogeology Argelio Fernandez.

The initiative is in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which calls on governments to ensure availability and sustainable management of water, as well as sanitation.

It also responds to national policies and priorities contained in “Tarea Vida”, the government plan in place since 2017 to address climate change.

Among its multiple strategic guidelines, the plan aims to ensure the availability and efficient use of water to cope with droughts, based on the application of technologies to save water and meet local demand.

It also urges the optimisation of hydraulic infrastructure and its maintenance, as well as the introduction of actions to measure water efficiency and productivity.

The Ejército Rebelde reservoir is located near the Parque Lenin recreational complex in Havana. Cuba has more than 240 dams with a reservoir capacity of over nine billion cubic metres of water, as part of the infrastructure designed to guarantee a water supply to the population and promote industrial development plans, agricultural irrigation and flood control. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Pathways for water

The long, narrow shape of the island of Cuba, the largest in the Cuban archipelago, means many rivers are short and the water flow is low and highly dependent on rainfall, more abundant in the May to October wet season and during the passage of tropical storms.

With average annual rainfall of 1,330 mm, the records show that rains are increasingly scarce, particularly in the eastern region where the country’s longest and largest rivers, the Cauto and Toa, respectively, are located.

From 2014 to 2017, the country faced the greatest drought in 115 years, affecting 70 percent of the national territory.

Studies predict that Cuba’s climate will tend toward less rainfall, higher temperatures and more intense droughts, and that by 2100 water availability could be reduced by more than 35 percent.

Another consequence of climate change is that sea levels are projected to rise, a phenomenon that will aggravate saltwater intrusion, to which 574 human settlements and 263 water supply sources are currently vulnerable, according to official figures.

Law No. 124 of the Land Water Law has been guiding the integrated and sustainable management of water since 2017, while the new constitution in force since April 2019 protects the right of Cubans to drinking water and sanitation, with due remuneration and rational use.

Since 1959, the government has promoted an ambitious engineering programme for artificial water reservoirs, to guarantee the water supply for a population that almost doubled to 11.2 million inhabitants since then, and to promote plans for industrial development and agricultural irrigation.

The data shows that from just over a dozen small reservoirs six decades ago, there are now more than 240 in the 15 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud – the second largest island in the archipelago – with a storage capacity of more than nine billion cubic metres.

According to the 2020 Statistical Yearbook, more than 95 percent of the Cuban population has access to drinking water, but only 86.5 percent of the urban population and 42.2 percent of the rural population receives piped water at home.

Workers of the Aguas de La Habana water company lay a high-density polyethylene pipe to supply drinking water in the Peñas Altas district, near Guanabo beach, in eastern Havana. Part of the hydraulic investments made by Cuba in the sector are supported by international cooperation through projects and funds from other countries and international organisations. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

Despite the economic crisis the country has suffered for three decades and the impact of the U.S. embargo since 1962, in recent years millions of dollars have been invested to mitigate the water deficit and improve water quality.

Among the engineering works, the water transfer aqueducts stand out, with more than a dozen throughout the country, considered strategic pillars in building resilience to the effects of climate change.

These interconnected systems of dams, canals, aqueducts, tunnels and bridges transfer water hundreds of kilometres from places where it is abundant to agricultural and industrial areas and human settlements.

They also make it possible to control floods, lessen the impact of drought and allow the siting of hydroelectric power plants.

Cuba has three plants that produce high-density polyethylene pipes 1,200 mm in diameter for laying new aqueducts and to replace the aging and leaking hydraulic infrastructure that in some cities is over 100 years old.

It also seeks to prioritise the manufacture of fittings and parts for domestic water supply networks, where almost a quarter of the piped water is lost.

Of the total investment in the water system, which in recent years has averaged more than 400 million pesos (16.5 million dollars) a year, more than half comes from the government budget for construction and assembly.

The rest comes from international cooperation through projects and funds from nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Japan, Spain, France and the OPEC Fund for International Development.

Thanks to these investments, in the 2018-2020 period, desalination plants were inaugurated in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Guantánamo and the municipality of Isla de la Juventud, in order to create easy access points in populations affected by high levels of salinity in their water supply sources.

Meanwhile, in Camagüey, the third most populated city in Cuba located 538 km east of the capital, a water treatment plant with a capacity to process 1,800 litres of water per second is nearing completion, which will make it the largest in the country.

Although the water that reaches most homes is treated and chlorinated, people remain concerned about the presence of microorganisms or salt that require boiling.

“It would be useful if shops sold water filters more frequently and at affordable prices, because they help protect our health,” a Havana resident, Yolanda Soler, told IPS.

However, building resilience also involves encouraging a water culture in the business and private sectors and among citizens as a whole, hydroeconomics engineer Luis Bruzón, who lives in the western province of Mayabeque, told IPS in a telephone interview.

“Do we know how much water is used to produce a ton of a given agricultural or industrial product or to provide a specific service?” asked Bruzón, who believes that having such data would improve decision-making in a nation that must increasingly optimise and save water.