Cubans are coming up with creative ways to generate power when their island has almost none left | CNN
www.cnn.com
The US oil blockade is forcing Cubans to think outside the box for tasks that usually require electricity. Farmers pasteurize milk over charcoal fires, commuters ride solar-powered Chinese tricycles, tour guides grind coffee by hand for the vanishingly few visitors that remain.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/52357579

Sept. 5, 2026

How to conserve cellphone battery when recharging options are scarce; how to preserve food when the fridge isn’t working; how to cope with the heat when air-conditioners aren’t an option; how to generate power when the whole country has almost none left.

These are the sort of tutorials that have made the Instagram feed of influencer Dayán Marrero indispensable to many Cubans as they try to adapt to the rolling electricity blackouts and fuel shortages that are increasingly part of everyday life…

As the #US-imposed #oil #blockade that is worsening the situation bites ever deeper, Marrero and his compatriots are having to get creative. Farmers pasteurize milk over charcoal fires; commuters ride solar-powered Chinese tricycles; tour guides grind coffee by hand…

  • spacegoat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    3 days ago

    If Cuba becomes the first solarpunk utopia because of America’s stupidity, that will be pretty fitting.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      2 days ago

      If they were smart they would be installing solar fields and batteries. This is especially important for island nations.

      • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        It is, but solar fiels aren’t spectacularly robust constructions - a significant factor in a region subject to increasingly powerful hurricanes and tropical storms.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          24 hours ago

          You make good points. I still think solar cells are going to be the most practical. It would be a neat place for a fusion reactor now that they are going commercial.