A free solar-powered charging station in Santa Clara has become a lifeline for residents in Cuba’s central region, where chronic blackouts and a severe gas shortage have left ordinary people scrambling for basic mobility and power. The station, known in Cuba as a “solinera,” opened in early April and is believed to be Cuba’s first solar-powered charging station.
Who Pays for the Grid’s Failure
Cubans have been flocking to the station to recharge everything from electric vehicles to UV nail lamps, a small but telling snapshot of how people are forced to improvise around the failures of the energy system. Because there is little gas for cars, residents are traveling miles to the Santa Clara solar station on rechargeable motorcycles and three-wheeled vehicles, while others walk there carrying cellphones with nearly depleted batteries, rice cookers, pressure cookers and other gadgets, appliances and vehicles that need power.
For Yudelaimys Barrero Muñoz, the station has changed whether she can keep working at all. The 43-mile, or 70-kilometer, trip from Cienfuegos to Santa Clara used to mean spending up to three hours on the side of a highway under the blazing sun waving money at drivers while she tried to hitch a ride. She said she buys supplies to resell and support her husband and two children, ages 3 and 4. The trip was impossible on her husband’s bicycle, which was once the family’s only mode of transportation, and later on a rechargeable three-wheeled vehicle whose battery could not handle the round trip.
Barrero Muñoz said, “They have solved many problems for many people.” She and her husband, Lorenzo Ravelo, now drive regularly to Santa Clara because they can charge their three-wheeled vehicle at the station. Barrero Muñoz said, “If it hadn’t been for this, I wouldn’t have been able to keep selling.” She now buys rice, sugar, hot dogs, mortadella, soap, shampoo, deodorant and other items regardless of their weight because they go into the vehicle instead of the two bags and a backpack she used to carry when she had to hitch a ride. She said, “I have more clients because I have more merchandise.”
What the People Built Around the Breakdown
The station exists because a business next door helped finance and set it up. Alexander Gutiérrez Altuve, who works there, said the owner of the business worked with the government to install solar panels that provide 30 kilowatts of energy and a battery of 60 kilowatts. He said that is enough energy to power the average U.S. home for a single day. The station has 20 sockets to charge equipment, 16 spots to charge vehicles and 12 for cooking.
Gutiérrez Altuve said, “This is something that hadn’t really been done before.” Lisandra Couto Pérez, a co-worker who helps track usage, said, “They are truly surprised when you tell them that it’s free.” The surprise says plenty about the usual arrangement: people are expected to pay, wait, and adapt, while access to power remains scarce and tightly controlled.
On a recent afternoon, Lorenzo Ravelo drove his three-wheeled vehicle into the station and plugged it in as Barrero Muñoz and their two young children hopped out the back. Before buying the small three-wheeler, Ravelo would borrow money from neighbors to rent a car if their children needed medical care, “and later make payments however you can and whenever you can.” With only a bicycle at the time, he could not take his family on road trips to help them escape Cuba’s daily grind. Now they can even go in their own vehicle to the beach, he said, tearing up. Ravelo said, “It’s a great solution.”
The State, the Blockade, and the Limits of Access
The Cuban government has stepped up the installation of solar panels in hospitals and other public places and established solar farms in the face of chronic blackouts and, in recent months, a severe gas shortage stemming from a U.S. energy blockade. Renewable energy now accounts for some 10% of the island’s electricity, up from 3.6% in 2024, but distribution remains limited and few Cubans can afford such a system.
That gap matters. The station may be free, but the article makes clear that access to power across the island remains constrained, and the broader system still leaves many people stranded between shortages and costs. Globally, just over 30% of electricity generation comes from renewable energies like solar, wind and hydropower, according to energy think tank Ember.
Santa Clara, with nearly a quarter of a million people, is one of Cuba’s most populous cities and is best known as the city of “Marta and El Che.” El Che, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, led a key battle during Cuba’s 1959 Revolution in Santa Clara, where his remains are housed in a mausoleum. It is also the town of Marta de los Ángeles González Abreu y Arencibia, a well-known philanthropist who supported Santa Clara and Cuba’s push for independence.
Santa Clara is also home to Danailys Arboláez Pérez, a 32-year-old mother of two who sells sandwiches, coffee, beer and cigarettes out of her home a short walk from the solar station. She said, “Almost everyone in this neighborhood goes there.” Arboláez Pérez has cooked rice and beans and even fried fish at the solar station, even when she has electricity because she wants to save money on natural gas. She also recharges two fans that cool the rooms of her 2-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter as Cuba’s temperatures start rising, and said the power outages last year were “apocalyptic.” She said she no longer has to jump out of bed when the power suddenly comes on, forcing her to cook or wash at untimely hours including 2 a.m. She said, “We’re not running around so much. I cook slowly, calmly. … If the power goes out, I’ll just take the pot there.”