Hive Energy to add 50 MW of solar in Cuba

UK solar developer Hive Energy has won a contract to install a 50-MW photovoltaic (PV) park for Union Electrica de Cuba (UNE) in the Caribbean island republic.

The contract was awarded to the British firm at the end of May, it said in a statement on Thursday. Under its terms, Hive Energy will build the solar park in the Mariel Free zone. The facility is slated to be operational by 2018 and is expected to produce up to 93 GWh of electricity per year.

The solar plant will be the first utility-scale PV project to be developed in Cuba. The Caribbean nation is currently highly dependable on oil imports for its fuel supply and aims to boost renewables through a USD-3.5-billion (EUR 3.08bn) investment programme in the coming years.

Cuba wants to be generating more than 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. For comparison, the island country sourced only 4% of its total power from renewables in 2015.

Hive Energy has installed more than 300 MW of solar capacity at over 32 locations in the past five years, it noted.

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