Related videos:
Images posted on Facebook show the Calabazar de Sagua photovoltaic park in the Villa Clara province completely overrun by weeds and dry vegetation, just a year after its inauguration, sparking a wave of citizen criticism on social media.
The citizen Enrique Pérez Ruiz, residing in the provincial capital, shared the photographs with a message full of irony: "Apparently the energy source for these panels is the vegetation."
In his post, he directly questioned the local leaders about the lack of maintenance and the absence of a sense of belonging towards such a significant establishment.
The park, located in the area known as Dos Hermanas, in the municipality of Encrucijada, was inaugurated on July 20, 2025 as the second photovoltaic plant in Villa Clara.
Built in record time with over 500 workers as part of a cooperation project with the Chinese government, it features 42,588 solar modules distributed across 1,638 structures and has an installed capacity of 21.8 MW.
The photographs reveal metal structures surrounded by yellow and brown grass, with dense vegetation covering the ground between the panels.
The condition of the site shows evident signs of prolonged neglect, which contrasts sharply with the millions invested in its construction.
User comments on the post reflect frustration and indignation. One user pointed directly to the source of the problem: "The solar parks were set up on land that was covered in marabú, and they cleared it with bulldozers. Marabú grows very quickly in any type of terrain, and in Cuba, anything that requires maintenance to function is doomed to fail."
Another citizen pointed out the obvious contradiction: "All solar panel fields have workers who take care of cleaning these tasks; I don't know why they are overgrown with grass here."
Indignation intensifies due to the energy situation in a province that, like other Cuban territories, endures outages exceeding 20 hours a day.
In this context, several users questioned why the panels remain unshielded while thousands of families are without electricity.
"So many people needing at least one panel; if they don't want them, just give them away," one person wrote. Another was more direct: "Nothing, as always, thousands of dollars going to waste and then the blockade is to blame."
"What doesn’t cost nothing isn’t valued, and what doesn’t harm me doesn’t interest me," Pérez wrote at the beginning of his post, summarizing what many Cubans perceive as the logic governing the State's management.
The situation of the Calabazar de Sagua park contrasts with another issue affecting similar facilities in the country: thefts.
In Ciego de Ávila, guards and thieves have confronted each other in the Las Nereidas park, and last May four individuals beat and tied up the guard of a pumping station in Holguín to steal 32 solar panels.
While the government pursues those who steal panels with sentences of up to 30 years, the infrastructure that was supposed to alleviate the energy crisis deteriorates due to institutional negligence.
Filed under: