Chinese news site the Global Times reports on the development of Cuba’s largest wind farm:

Chinese technologies are helping Cuba, as the country aims to become one of the more than 100 countries and regions that will meet their energy demand with renewable sources like wind, water or sunlight by 2050, experts said.

To reach that goal, Cuba plans to produce about 24 percent of its total energy needs from different renewable sources by 2030.

It is an ambitious target given that as of 2006, the island nation generated only 4.3 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

A key project under construction is a vast complex consisting of two wind farms, La Herradura 1 and La Herradura 2, in the province of Las Tunas, some 600 kilometers east of Havana.

They will generate about 101 megawatts (MW) of energy that will be fed into the national electric system.

…

Miguel Casi, an official from Cuba’s Electric Union, said the first wind farm will save Cuba nearly 40,000 tons of fuel a year, and stop nearly 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being released.

“We estimate the second wind farm could save 39,000 tons of fuel a year, as well as 127,000 tons of carbon dioxide,” Casi said.

The goal is to have at least one circuit operating by the end of this year.

Cuba has more than 9,300 windmills and 20 generators distributed in the nation’s four existing wind farms, located in the central province of Ciego de Avila, in the southern Isle of Youth as well as in the northeast province of Holguin, where there are two.

Total installed capacity stands at 11.7 MW, which means the Caribbean nation ranks 69th worldwide in wind energy.

Read the full Global Times article.

[Image credit: Maxence]