Latest news with #Granma
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
China plans to open a solar-powered shoe factory in Cuba
China will open a new solar-powered factory in Cuba that will make flip-flops and other footwear amid the island's severe energy crisis. It is a joint venture created on July 7 called DuoNex S.A. between a Cuban entity and Chinese company Hangzhou Iunke Industrial Development Co., Ltd., according to the official Cuban press. A previous report stated that the new company was established with the goal of 'developing, producing and marketing footwear, leather goods, saddlery, plastics and textiles.' According to the official newspaper Granma, María Eugenia Fabra Tamayo, Business Director at Industrias Nexus S.A., says the goal of the company is to produce up to three pairs of shoes per capita. The first production lines will include flip-flops, protective boots, athletic and executive footwear. Fabra said that the products will be targeted at sectors such as communications, tourism, agriculture, the sugar industry, non-state management, and the general population, through chain stores and e-commerce platforms. Fabra also said that the products would not be limited to the domestic market, but that the plan is to export them to Latin America and the Caribbean, although the destination countries were not specified. The company also plans to produce plastic products, such as containers for industrial paint. The factory will be located in the municipality of Regla in Havana, with an initial workforce of 63 and the creation of more than 40 additional jobs. While Cuba will provide the labor and infrastructure, China will be responsible for providing designs, molds, financing for technological improvements and purchasing spare parts. China will also supply some of the raw materials, while the Cuban partner will negotiate agreements with other national companies to obtain leather and packaging materials. To ensure operational capacity during frequent power outages, the company will rely on photovoltaic solar panels imported from China, with the goal of becoming energy self-sufficient. China has become one of Cuba's main allies amid the deep crisis plaguing the island, strengthening ties in key sectors such as tourism. The Cuban government has eliminated visa requirements for Chinese travelers, while this year China began offering Cubans free visas to visit the Asian country if they meet the requirements.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Officials make urgent move as country faces power grid collapse: 'The quickest way to obtain energy'
Approximately every six weeks in Cuba, the unreliable and outdated electric grid plunges the majority of the country into darkness — sometimes for days at a time. Now, a solar project hopes to pick up the slack and bring some stability to the country's power supply, Tech Xplore reported. The new project consists of 44,000 solar panels across 55 photovoltaic solar parks. Several of them will occupy sites that had previously been dedicated to Soviet-funded nuclear power plants, which have sat abandoned since the USSR collapsed. Currently, Cuba generates power from just eight thermoelectric power plants — which Tech Xplore described as "outdated" — as well as crude-oil generators and floating electric plants rented from a Turkish company. These all use dirty fossil fuels to produce energy, which has led to a number of issues. Fossil fuels, including oil and gas, are both expensive and in short supply in Cuba. In fact, some of the generators are using crude oil that is also in demand for fueling cars, tractors, and ambulances on the island. Add to that the pollution — including air pollution near the power generators, which has been found to pose a grave threat to public health — and the formula isn't looking good. That's why the country is aiming to generate 12% of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2025 and 37% of it by 2030. And solar is an excellent first step in this effort. Tech Xplore quoted Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy, who told state-run newspaper Granma that solar is key because "investments are cheaper, they are built more quickly, and can be spread throughout the country." Installing batteries will also be critical, as they'll be able to store excess energy to use in the event of a dip in power. But understandably, the entire undertaking is costly; fortunately for Cuba, while its Western allies remain scant, China is investing heavily in the project. The costs were estimated to be several million dollars, although no exact numbers have been made public. Tech Xplore also quoted Eliecer Machin, a former Soviet thermophysicist who stayed in Cuba even after the nuclear plants were closed. He is hopeful about the implementation of solar, calling it "the quickest way to obtain energy" for Cuba's energy-stable future. Should the government be able to control how we heat our homes? Definitely Only if it saves money I'm not sure No way Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cuba looks to sun to solve its energy crisis
Not far from the ruins of an unfinished nuclear power plant in the Cuban province of Cienfuegos, hundreds of workers are hastily installing 44,000 solar panels as the island seeks once again to reduce its reliance on oil to escape an energy crisis. Forty years ago, the solution was thought to be Russian nuclear energy. This time, it is the sun. With help from China. Dozens of containers with Chinese inscriptions are lined up at the "La Yuca" photovoltaic park, where forklifts loaded with solar panels weave between the concrete frames that will hold them. "We are laying wires, digging trenches and installing panels," a worker on the project, to be completed in May, explained of the frenetic activity. Cuba, an island of some 10 million inhabitants, remains highly dependent on fossil fuels to operate its eight outdated thermoelectric power plants, most of them online since the 1980s and '90s and prone to frequent breakdowns. The communist government has approved the construction of 55 solar parks by 2025. Five of them will be in the central province of Cienfuegos, that also hosts an industrial port and a refinery, and was chosen in the 1980s to host a Soviet-funded nuclear power plant that was aborted mid-build when the USSR collapsed. Cuba's fragile electric grid has gone offline four times in the past six months, plunging the majority of the country into darkness, sometimes for days on end. Most of the country faces near-daily outages blamed mainly on fuel shortages. "More than half of all the fuel consumed by the country goes towards electricity production," Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy recently told state-run newspaper Granma. - Millions of dollars - Most of the oil has come from Venezuela which, like Cuba, is under US sanctions and has seen the administration of President Donald Trump recently revoke licences that allowed transnational companies to extract crude there. The country also uses floating electric plants rented from a Turkish company, and generators fueled by crude oil even as there is not enough petrol for the island's cars, tractors and ambulances. The country produces about a third of the fuel it consumes, and buys the rest. De la O Levy has said solar parks are at the heart of Cuba's renewable energy goals because the "investments are cheaper, they are built more quickly, and can be spread throughout the country." The communist island, grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades, aims to generate 12 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025 and 37 percent by 2030. By the end of this year, it hopes to produce 1,200 MW in solar energy per day -- almost equal to its daily electricity deficit of 1,500 MW. The ambitious project requires an investment of several million dollars, and with few Western friends, Cuba has gladly accepted support from what the presidency described in February as "the sister nation of #China." A total cost estimate has not been made public. - 'The quickest way' - Just 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from "La Yuca" stands an imposing steel dome designed to protect what was going to be a nuclear reactor -- the last large-scale attempt to change Cuba's energy mix. On its thick concrete walls, Russian inscriptions are still visible. The project was canceled in 1992 by then-president Fidel Castro after the fall of the USSR, a Cuban ally, which had largely financed the project and provided physicists and engineers. Eliecer Machin, a thermophysicist trained in the USSR who still lives in the "nuclear city" built to house the personnel of the would-be power plant, recalls the "hard blow" when it was shuttered. The 60-year-old now makes a living as a pig farmer. Today, as a result of mistakes made in the past, he said, solar is "the quickest way to obtain energy." University of Texas researcher Jorge Pinon said the solar energy would mean little if Cuba doesn't have batteries to store it for use in periods of darkness. lp/jb/mlr/st
