Cuba's 21.875 MW El Algarrobo Photovoltaic Power Plant Begins Operation

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 6, the El Algarrobo photovoltaic power plant in Cuba's Guantánamo Province officially began operation, with an installed capacity of 21.875 MW peak, supplying all generated electricity to Guantánamo Province and connecting to the national power grid. The project was constructed by Construction Brigade No. 3 of Cuba's Ministry of Construction, with a construction period of 18 months and a final investment of approximately 1.4 billion Cuban pesos.

El Algarrobo is located east of Guantánamo City, along the road to Baracoa, covering an area of approximately 23 hectares. Construction began on February 24, 2025, and it is the 37th site under the "Proyecto B" photovoltaic program implemented in cooperation between Cuba and China. The program involves 46 projects and aims to add approximately 1,000 MW of photovoltaic power generation capacity.

The power plant is equipped with 7 inverters and does not include an energy storage system, with photovoltaic power fed directly into the national power grid during daylight hours. During project commissioning, Chinese technical personnel originally scheduled to participate in equipment commissioning left ahead of schedule, and automation and information technology staff from the Guantánamo Electric Company and the Santiago branch of the Cuban Electric Union subsequently undertook equipment programming, parameter adjustment, and grid connection work, with the first inverter completing synchronization in about one month. El Algarrobo thus became the first project in Cuba's current round of photovoltaic construction to complete grid connection synchronization independently by domestic technical personnel.

Guantánamo Province had previously put another photovoltaic power plant of approximately 21.8 MW into operation in September 2025, which is equipped with 42,588 photovoltaic modules and 7 inverters, covering an area of approximately 32 hectares. El Algarrobo subsequently advanced as the second project of the same scale in the region.

Cuba plans to build approximately 92 photovoltaic power plants by 2028, with a total installed capacity of approximately 2,000 MW, of which the first phase includes 55 projects with an individual scale of approximately 21.8 MW. As of March 2026, Cuba had completed the construction of 52 photovoltaic power plants, with a combined installed capacity exceeding 1,000 MW.