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The Cuban regime announced this Saturday the synchronization to the National Electric Power System of the third solar park in Pinar del Río, with a capacity of 21.8 megawatts, located near the town of Puerta de Golpe, in the municipality of Consolación del Sur. The response from Cubans on social media was not one of celebration, but rather of sarcasm that has become an automatic reaction to this type of news.
"Now Pinar del Río will no longer experience blackouts," wrote a user on Facebook, using irony as their only means of coping with an unchanging reality. Another was more creative: "I heard a rumor that the panels were installed incorrectly, and instead of the sun giving us energy, the sun was actually receiving energy, haha." A third user limited their comment to two words that say it all: "Underwater current."
Incredulity also took the form of a question: "Are you sure it's Pinar del Río?" And there was no shortage of comments that mixed mockery with denunciation: "And who are the ones with access to those panels?"
The contrast between the official announcement and the reality of the day could not be more eloquent: that same Saturday, Unión Eléctrica estimated 1,935 megawatts of impact for the maximum demand nationwide, as reported by the state media Cubadebate.
The official media described the work as an achievement made "despite the economic blockade," attributing the delays in construction to the U.S. embargo. Yosleiby Izquierdo Sánchez, a senior specialist in renewable sources at the Pinar Electric Company, acknowledged to Granma that "among the main challenges was the utilization of the little fuel that was coming in, which was most important at that time to achieve a sequence." The park is still in the commissioning phase with technical assistance from China, and in its first day, it contributed 106 megawatt-hours to the system.
The installation features 42,588 bifacial photovoltaic panels —an improvement over the two previous parks in the province— seven inverters, and two direct interconnection lines to the national system. "We are already contributing to the SEN, but we are still making adjustments, as is normal at this phase," detailed Izquierdo Sánchez.
This third park completes an accelerated expansion in Vueltabajo. Before 2025, the province had eight small facilities that totaled only 18.5 megawatts of installed capacity. In the past 14 months, around 70 additional megawatts have been added, including the first large park in La Barbarita, synchronized in April 2025, the second in La Lucila in November of that year, and one of five megawatts donated by China in La Ceniza.
The structural problem, however, remains unchanged: none of these parks have battery storage systems, meaning their contribution is limited to sunlight hours and does not alleviate nighttime blackouts, which are the longest and most severe. Cuba recorded deficits of up to 2,134 megawatts in June, with an availability of only around 1,016 megawatts against a demand of approximately 3,050 megawatts.
The pattern repeats with every inauguration. In front of a solar park in Artemisa in November 2025, Cubans had already commented that "every time they announce the inauguration of a photovoltaic park, the power outages increase." This Saturday, history repeated itself with the same punctuality as the power cuts.
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