Cuba to Build Eight Windfarms for 280 Megawatts

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Cuba has announced that it will build eight new windfarms by 2020 with a total generating capacity of 280 megawatts (MW). The wind installations will save 200,000 tons of fuel used by conventional power stations.

Six of the windfarms will be built in eastern Cuba, and each will be designed with a 30-MW capacity; the other two will be set up in the central region, each with a capacity of 50 MW, according to Aleisly Valdes, the country's Director of Emergency Power Generation, reported the state-owned Juventud Rebelde.

Valdes said the facilities will cost a "considerable sum," but did not give a specific cost estimate. He said he believed that the investment would be recouped in less than 10 years.

He added that the windfarms will mitigate carbon dioxide emissions by 184,000 tons a year, as well as reduce other greenhouse gases, which would have been emitted by conventional power stations.

According to Cuban researchers, the Caribbean island has the potential to generate 1,200 MW of wind power annually.

Currently, 16 different research groups are working to develop the nation's renewable energy sources, a task that has become crucial given recent failed attempts to uncover deep-water oil reserves.

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