Cuba's Energy Revolution and 2030 Policy Goals: More Penetration of Renewable Energy in Electricity Generation

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/intejcubastud.9.1.0073
• Pages: 73-90
• Published date: 01 April 2017
• Date: 01 April 2017
• Author: Mario Alberto Arrastía-Avila,Lisa M. Glidden
• Subject Matter: Cuba,energy revolution,renewable energy

IJCS Produced and distributed by Pluto Journals www.plutojournals.com/ijcs/

ARTICLE

CUBA’S ENERGY REVOLUTION AND 2030

POLICY GOALS: MORE PENETRATION OF

RENEWABLE ENERGY IN ELECTRICITY

GENERATION

Mario Alberto Arrastía-Avila

Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energies and

Environmental Awareness (CUBASOLAR)

Lisa M. Glidden

State University of New York, College at Oswego, USA

Abstract

Cuba has been remarkably successful at revitalising its energy sector over the last

two decades, significantly increasing efficiency and reducing energy intensity and

emissions. This article analyses those successes and looks at the policy challenges ahead

for Cuba to achieve its 2030 energy policy goals. We argue the nascent success of the

2006 Energy Revolution is due to its comprehensive approach, targeting infrastructure,

consumption habits and people’s understanding of energy issues. We then examine

some of Cuba’s current energy challenges, presenting data on Cuba’s energy mix as

of 2014. We analyse the country’s proposed energy policy to achieve 24% penetration

of renewable energies in electricity generation by 2030. The Cuban government has

an array of policy tools, from stimulating domestic production to changing foreign

investment regulations, in order to achieve its goals. One of the most significant

recent policy shifts includes the External Investment Law, which creates a regulatory

framework and policies, including ones to utilise and develop perspectives of renewable

sources of energy that will help to expedite the path toward a diverse energy mix with

a large presence of renewables.

Keywords: Cuba, energy revolution, renewable energy

74 ARTICLE – MARIO ALBERTO ARRASTÍA-AVILA AND LISA M. GLIDDEN

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CUBAN STUDIES 9.1 SPRING 2017

Introduction

In 2006, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) declared Cuba the only

country to have achieved sustainable development (WWF 2006). Cuba often

tops lists of sustainable or green countries (see Famelli 2007 for a brief review of

the measures). Cuba’s success is the result of a combination of the government

policies adopted since 1959 and its responses to the circumstances of the 1990s

when Cuba’s economy was severely impacted by the fall of the Soviet Union and

ensuing collapse of the Eastern Europe bloc of socialist countries which marked

the end of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA, aka

COMECON). Cuba had a number of successful policy responses to deal with

the economic crisis, culminating in the 2006 Energy Revolution, the focus of this

article’s analysis.

Cuba has been remarkably successful at revitalising its energy sector over the

last two decades, significantly increasing efficiency and reducing energy intensity

and emissions. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),

between 1970 and 1985 the energy intensity decreased continuously from 41

GJ/1,000 pesos (0.98 toe/1,000 pesos) to 17 GJ/1,000 pesos (0.40 toe/1,000

pesos) (IAEA 2008: 46, 123). CEPAL states that between 1990 and 2014 the

energy intensity of the GDP of Cuba decreased from 2.08 boe/1,000 USD to 1.00

boe/1,000 USD, in constant 2010 prices. The average of the Latin American and

Caribbean region in 2014 was 0.8 boe/1,000 USD (CEPALSTAT 2016). It is

clear that for decades the country has been using energy less intensively.

Nevertheless, the reasons for that have been different and include structural

changes due to faster GDP growth compared with the Total Primary Energy

Supply, and structural changes due to economic crisis, and efficiency measures.

This article presents the vision of the authors about the ways in which Cuba

is sustaining and moving forward its Energy Revolution. We begin with a brief

summary of Cuba’s Energy Revolution, describing what made it necessary and

how it was carried out. We argue the nascent success of the 2006 Energy

Revolution is due to its comprehensive approach, targeting infrastructure, con-

sumption habits, and people’s understanding of energy issues. We then examine

some of Cuba’s current energy challenges, and analyse the country’s proposed

energy policy to achieve 24% penetration of renewable energies in electricity

generation by 2030.

Background

Since 1959, when only 56% of the Cuban population had access to electricity,

the government has implemented an energy policy addressed to give every citizen