Dependence on oil is, in many ways, like a curse, and Cuba is no exception to the rule. For years, Cuba’s reliance on Soviet petroleum and more recently on Venezuelan oil led to a recurrent pattern of negligible efforts to find its own hydrocarbons, along with Moscow’s persistent refusal to engage in any serious drilling efforts.

The disaster of more than 800 biogas plants left to rot in Camagüey in the 1980s, and the many blunders associated with the experimental wind farms on the island of Turiguanó in 1999 are just a few examples. The recent political tensions in Venezuela have underscored the need for Cuba to define new priorities and not just in trying to develop its own onshore and offshore oil and gas.

Authorities are putting increasing emphasis on alternative and renewable energy sources that, as energy expert Jorge Piñón has pointed out, would help Cuba cut its dependence on foreign oil imports.

It wasn’t by chance that in June, Havana hosted the XII World Conference on Eolic (Wind) Energy and Renewable Energies an event attended by experts from Europe, China, Latin America and elsewhere.

That followed the establishment last December of an intergovernmental commission to promote renewable energy sources.

What’s now in place is modest and in a very early stage, though a study presented in June by Alfredo López, Cuba’s minister of energy and mines, reveals some interesting statistics:

* At the moment, 34,658 schools, clinics, farms, dairies, housing projects, hotels, day-care centers and other facilities use various forms of renewable energy.

* These sources are 9,476 solar panels (photovoltaic cells); four experimental wind farms generating 11.7 megawatts of electricity; 827 biogas plants burning animal manure (mostly from hogs); 187 small hydroelectric dams, 10,595 solar heaters, 9,343 windmills, 79 turbo generators and 114 boilers.

* Other projects to be implemented soon include another Eolic park; a bioelectric plant at the Jesús Rabí sugar mill in Matanzas province; six plants that’ll produce biogas from hog manure; a biogas plant on Isla de la Juventud that uses forest products, and the construction of another 1,423 windmills along with 6,532 solar heaters.

According to experts, Cuba generates an average five kilowatt hours of solar energy per square meter per day. They also say the most favorable place is along Cuba’s southern coast, from Cienfuegos province to the Gulf of Guacanayabo.

A new photovoltaic solar park, which cost four million Cuban pesos, recently began operating Cantarrana, in Cienfuegos province.

By the end of this month, it should be generating 2.6 megawatts per hour. Its panels point south, at a 15-degree angle, to maximize solar energy. Parks such as these are generally set up near big cities, tourist resorts and industrial centers to satisfy high energy consumption needs and avoid costly transmission of such electricity.

For example, the 142-room Hotel Las Tunas previously burned 1,200 liters of diesel fuel per day. Now it relies on 54 photovoltaic panels to provide all the energy the hotel needs throughout the day.

However, Cuba’s southern coast is the best for maximizing wind energy. A 50-megawatt eolic park is now being built at Playa Herradura, close to the earlier project at Turiguanó and the coast of Las Tunas province.

Other potential locations have been identified in the province of Holguín (Gibara and Pinares de Mayarí). Experts say wind energy could eventually generate 420 MW or 20% of Cuba’s current energy consumption.

Sancti Spíritus province alone has 650 windmills for pumping water for dairy and other farms; 320 solar heaters, especially in mountainous areas and tourist resorts, and 120 biogas plants, including 78 for private farms.

For more than 50 years, Cuba’s National Energy System (SEN) was extremely centralized and vertical; municipios played no role.

Over the last 10 years, however, authorities have encouraged municipios to manage alternate sources of energy beyond the supply they may be getting from SEN.

Towns such as Mantua (Pinar del Río), San-ta Cruz del Norte (Mayabeque), Manicaragua (Villa Clara), Aguada de Pasajeros (Cienfuegos), Jagüey Grande (Matanzas) and Placetas and Fomento (Sancti Spíritus) are already involved under the supervision of Cuba-Energía (Centro de Gestión de la Información y Desarollo de la Energía).

Subsequently, they are building not only renewable sources but networking throughout their local territories.

So far, Cuba has signed four major agreements with three other countries aimed at production of renewable energy.

The first, located in Matanzas, involves Brazilian investors. A second project, also located in Matanzas, is the bioelectric plant at Jesús Rabí, which is being co-financed by China.

Likewise, the British firm Havana Energy Ltd. is financing a plant at the Ciro Redondo mill in Ciego de Avila which will not only process bagasse from sugar cane during the harvest, but also process the thorny bush known as marabú into usable energy.