Cuba is aspiring to obtain 24 percent of its electricity
from renewable sources by 2030 and to that end has unveiled an initial set of
projects requiring a combined investment outlay of more than $600 million.
The island currently generates just 4.3 percent of its
electricity from renewable sources but it plans to allocate more than $3.5
billion to develop that sector over the next 15 years, Communist Party daily
Granma reported Friday.
Meeting that target by 2030 would mean $780 million in
savings annually for the Caribbean country on imports of fossil fuels, the
source of 96 percent of the nation's electricity.
Achieving greater balance in the island's energy matrix is a
top economic priority of President Raul Castro's administration, which in June
approved a policy aimed at developing renewables and opening that sector up to
foreign investment.
During this week's 32nd Havana International Fair, the
government unveiled proposals for foreign investment projects to create, expand
and modernize the island's renewable energy capacity.
That portfolio includes wind farm and bioelectric power
station projects to be built by mixed-capital or entirely private companies.
Those initial projects will require combined investment
outlays exceeding $600 million.
Cuba's strategy is to maximize its water, solar, wind,
bagasse and forest biomass resources.
The government also has plans in place to install some
133,000 solar heaters in homes and other buildings by 2030, Granma reported,
citing the Energy and Mines Ministry.
The Caribbean island produces 4 million tons of crude and
natural gas annually, mostly for electricity generation, although power from
locally extracted hydrocarbons only covers 50 percent of domestic consumption.
Cuba also is exploring for oil in its portion of the Gulf of
Mexico, although the drilling campaign has been unsuccessful thus far.
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