Guantanamo.- The El Algarrobo Photovoltaic Park, with an installed capacity of 21.875 megawatts peak, was officially inaugurated in Guantánamo Province.
The facility was built in 18 months by Brigade No. 3 of the Ministry of Construction (MICONS), at a final cost of 1.4 billion pesos. It supplies all the electricity it generates to Guantánamo Province.
Located in the area known as El Algarrobo, along the first kilometers of the road to Baracoa, east of Guantánamo City, the park covers approximately 23 hectares. It is the first and only photovoltaic facility in Cuba to have been synchronized with the national grid by Cuban specialists—specifically, young engineers from Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba.
Yoel Pérez García, First Secretary of the Party in Eastern Cuba; Vicente de la O Levy, Minister of Energy and Mines; and Alis Azahares Torreblanca, Governor of Guantánamo Province, attended the inauguration ceremony.
The facility has seven inverters and is designed to generate electricity for the province during daylight hours. Its operation is currently limited to daytime generation because it does not yet have an energy-storage system.
Since it was connected to the national grid on August 4, following the start-up of its first inverter, the park has supplied more than 2,000 megawatt-hours of electricity to the province. This contribution has helped extend service hours for the population and represents an important step in the strategy to transform the energy matrix in Cuba’s easternmost province.
“Guantánamo has been making progress in its energy transformation, and this is the right path,” said the Minister of Energy and Mines. He emphasized that the province is moving toward greater energy self-sufficiency, as demonstrated by the fact that it receives the park’s entire production.
De la O Levy noted that Guantánamo is at the forefront of local photovoltaic power generation in Cuba. He described renewable energy as a strategic alternative amid fuel shortages affecting large-scale generation and the operation of the national power grid and transmission networks.
The minister called for more efficient weekly maintenance and cleaning of power-generation facilities, which would help optimize output and reduce power outages. He also urged continued efforts to conserve energy, rehabilitate mini-hydroelectric plants, and combat electricity theft.
