Castro’s summer of discontent
Last summer, Cuba’s Fidel Castro found himself in a bit of a pinch. Demand for electricity peaks on the island in the heat of summer, when Cubans turn on the AC in an attempt to escape the sweltering, tropical heat. The trouble is, Cuba relies largely on seven old oil-fired power plants for electricity. At full capacity, the ...
Last summer, Cuba's Fidel Castro found himself in a bit of a pinch. Demand for electricity peaks on the island in the heat of summer, when Cubans turn on the AC in an attempt to escape the sweltering, tropical heat. The trouble is, Cuba relies largely on seven old oil-fired power plants for electricity. At full capacity, the plants should be able to generate about 2,700 megawatts. But, in reality, they only generate about 60 percent of that amount. Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the plants have run on local, high-sulfur oil that wreaks havoc on the plants. As a result, breakdowns, clogs, and maintenance problems cause daily blackouts. Last summer, the blackouts led to small-time political upheavals.
So this summer, Castro has a plan. With the help of Venezuela and China, he’s spent some $1 billion on linking hundreds of generators to the power grid and has replaced millions of aging, inefficient home appliances with newer Chinese ones. Castro is calling the new plan an “energy revolution.” But it sounds more like a finger in the dam.
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