Granma International
September 5, 2001
The island is about to produce the cells constituting 80% of the value of photovoltaic panels used to channel solar energy. Without contaminating the environment and at a lower cost than traditional sources, this method has provided electricity for some 2,000 rural schools and other social objectives such as family doctor clinics in remote mountain areas.
Cuba is to take a new step in the development and use of solar energy when the cell production line at the Pinar del Río Electronic Components Complex in the west of the island opens in the near future. The solar panels that have brought electricity to 2,000 rural schools in remote mountain areas are to be assembled there.
Guillermo Santana, head of the cell laboratory at Electronic Materials and Reagents Institute (IMRE) attached to the University of Havana Faculty of Physics, told Granma International: "I have hopes that they will be producing before the end of 2002 because the investment is already halfway through."
The cell constitutes almost 80% of the value of the panel, whose market price oscillates between four to five dollars per peak watt (pw). The pw is the energy generating capacity of a panel at maximum solar radiation.
The panel is no more than an interconnection of these cells, which generate a voltage when they are exposed to solar rays.
Their initial manufacture is to be based on cutting-edge imported technology and imported silicone crystal sheets.
The idea is similar to the one adopted in September 2000, when the company decided to purchase the panel assembly line, using foreign technology and capital, to market the panels and reinvest the profits because, as Santana explained, "we are talking about products that need resources in the order of one million-plus dollars."
At a later stage of integration the objective is to produce the silicone crystal sheets here.
Without doubt a challenge, given that cell and panel manufacture is mainly controlled by the transitional oil giants. Energy continues to be a power lever that they do not want to lose.
That is why maintaining a market of this kind can only be achieved with qualitative research work directly reflected in production and a guarantee of constant technological renovation.
Scientists play an extremely important role in these high added-value creative processes.
Cuba possesses the appropriate installations and qualified staff with much experience in the field, the two components needed to "face the challenges this new industry is going to impose," explains the specialist, who confessed that the company's aspiration is to "become an important pole in Central America and the Caribbean in relation to this technology," given that installed systems are currently imported from Europe or Australia, not even the United States, whose production capacity cannot satisfy its own market.
Santana commented that early cell research began in 1976 at a very local level, in what was then the University of Havana School of Physics, with cooperation from Polish and Soviet institutions.
Emir Madruga, general manager of EcoSol Solar-the company that manufactures and installs photovoltaic systems in Cuba -- recalled how the original panels arrived via the cosmos at the beginning of the '80s, as they had been used by the Soviets in artificial satellites.
Santana related how during those years, within the framework of the Council of Mutual Economic Aid (CMEA), Cuba and the German Democratic Republic were assigned the task of producing the electronic components needed by the socialist bloc, which led to the project of the Electronic Components Complex in Pinar del Río, finally established in 1984.
United States bankrupts Spanish company selling components to Cuba
However, the U.S. blockade dealt them a heavy blow. They had bought the plant from a Spanish company but the technology was of U.S. origin. When the U.S. authorities discovered this fact, "they drove the business into bankruptcy in two months."
From '86 to '87 demonstration projects were undertaken to resolve socioeconomic problems, and some experimental examples of solar cells were produced. However, Cuba was receiving 13 million tons of oil from the former Soviet Union and the Juraguá thermonuclear plant in the center of the island, and another in the east were at the project stage.
Nevertheless, research continued. "Thanks to the perseverance of our scientists and relations with important centers abroad we were able to keep up-to-date on the newest world technologies and make progress when the special period was at its worst," confirmed Santana.
"At 11 p.m. on July 26, 1995, we managed to produce an experimental example of industrial size cells. With a huge effort, above all from Pinar del Río experts, we managed to restart machinery that had been idle for 10 years."
More than anything, "we wanted to demonstrate that, despite the situation in the country, we had a human and scientific potential capable of supporting a company like this."
Almost 20 years after the first contact with the design and development of solar technology, the panel assembly line is a reality, and hopefully the cells soon will be as well.
At present the close to 600 workers at the Pinar del Río complex are manufacturing panels from 1.5 to 165 pws. The latter are the ones that have been installed in the island's rural schools, guaranteeing five hours of electricity for a television (which consumes around 80 watts), video (30 watts) and two lamps (15 watts each).
The panels "are very good quality, something that one does not often find on the market," confirmed Santana and comments that they are one dollar cheaper than those produced in the rest of the world. The country is now saving 10% of what it would spend on imported panels by buying the components to assemble them here.
Italy and Germany have contracts with the company, as well as the ISOFOTON photovoltaic industry, which produces 12 megawatts per year and is today one of the main supports in Europe.
The complex has the capacity to produce one megawatt per year and works with Italian technology from 2000, which has been upgraded by Cuban specialists.
When transforming the sun's rays into electricity, the panels do not contaminate the environment. They generate an accumulative potential which allows them to work even on cloudy days when -- according to theoretical calculations -- they produce half the normal amount of electricity.
With a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years these modules can be expanded and increase their capacity.
Although the potential installed in the photovoltaic sector to date has not reached a significant value in comparison to generation via other sources, it has shown itself to be the optimum solution to provide electricity for small-scale social objectives, especially in remote areas.
And if anyone doubts its usefulness they should ask Cuban children who live in the mountains and who now have the same access as city children to the computer and audio-visual education programs being developed by the country.
Every kilometer of power line in the mountain areas
COSTS $7,000-12,500 USD The panel constitutes the central and most expensive element in a photovoltaic system: between 60-70% of the total.
The world price for the installed system -- including other elements necessary for its assembly -- is around $15 USD per pw.
So each system used in Cuban rural schools costs approximately $2,475 USD.
In comparison, the cost of extending electrical power lines in the mountain areas ranges from $7,000 to $12,500 USD per kilometer, including all the materials and resources, thus only justifying its installation for a minimum of 25 users or an important economic objective.
If the service was provided through diesel plants, as well as the initial investment it would require a constant supply of fuel, lubricants, spare parts and qualified operational and maintenance staff. The price of oil on the world market is between $22 and $28 USD a barrel. Diesel is much more expensive, due to its refining process.
Cuban technology pilot plant
The Electronic Materials and Reagents Institute, created in 1985, already has a pilot plant constructed with Cuban technology that has the capacity to obtain silicone halides which, after processing, comprise the raw material for the sheets from which photovoltaic cells are manufactured.
Assembled with the help of French specialists, as part of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the plant uses sand from the Santa Teresa mine in Pinar del Río and carbon from sugarcane chaff to obtain the halides.
Although silicone is the second most abundant mineral in the world, the kind found in the Cuban mine has a special quality: "Virtually using a simple sieve, selecting the particle size and a simple rinse in hydrochloric acid, it is possible to obtain more than 99% mineral purity," Santana explained.