Home – Energy – Cuba’s energy crisis pushed a 21-year-old to build solar panels at home, and more than 15 electric tricycles are already proving it works
In a Havana where the power can disappear for most of the day, a 21-year-old entrepreneur is turning electric tricycles into something closer to rolling charging stations. Yadán Pablo Espinosa has installed solar panels on more than 15 tricycles in a matter of weeks, giving drivers extra working time when plugging in is unreliable.
It will not “solve” Cuba’s energy crisis, but it shows where the pressure is highest. What do you do when your battery is low and the outlets are dead, but the groceries still need to move? In that gap, small, improvised tech starts to matter.
Espinosa works out of Arroyo Naranjo on the outskirts of the capital, building custom iron frames that act as a roof and a mount for a photovoltaic panel. Reporting based on EFE describes a small team made up of his father, three brothers, and a friend, assembling the kits in a family workshop.
The concept is simple and very “street level.” Panels rated around 550 to 650 watts sit overhead, shading the driver while producing electricity, and Espinosa says the system sends steady power straight to the motor while the tricycle is moving, then charges the battery during stops.
Solar cannot replace the battery, and it is not strong enough to run a work vehicle by itself for long. But a constant trickle of power reduces how fast the battery drains, which is often the difference between finishing a shift or calling it early. If you have ever tried to stretch a phone battery during a blackout, you already get the idea.
Electric tricycles have been spreading across Havana as gasoline vehicles fade from the streets. In early April, EFE described a “surge” in creative electric vehicles, including cargo tricycles adapted to carry passengers, as a practical response to the island’s severe energy crunch.
The money side is just as telling. One rider told EFE she was paying nearly 1,000 Cuban pesos a day (about $2) for rides, while EFE also reported that Cuba’s minimum monthly wage until mid 2025 was about $18 and the average wage was about $54.
That math explains why a roof panel can feel like a business investment, not a hobby project. When a tricycle is used to move goods or passengers, every extra trip is income, and missing even a few hours can hit a household hard. It is economics, one neighborhood at a time.
The broader crisis keeps tightening. On May 14, Spain’s El País reported that Cuba’s energy minister said the country had run out of key fuels like diesel and fuel oil, and that blackouts in Havana were exceeding 20 hours a day.
Weeks earlier, EFE reported that Cuba had endured its sixth nationwide blackout in less than a year and a half, and that independent estimates put the cost of repairing the electrical system in the $8 billion to $10 billion range.
Daily utility updates make the problem concrete. In its May 15 national grid note, Unión Eléctrica reported that service was affected around the clock the previous day, with a peak shortfall of 1,991 megawatts a little after 9 p.m., and several provinces still operating on isolated “microsystems” while reconnection work continued.
The same update offers a reality check on solar’s current limits. Unión Eléctrica said 54 new solar photovoltaic parks produced 2,112-megawatt hours with a maximum output of 200 megawatts around midday, yet it still forecast peak demand of 3,220 megawatts against expected availability of 1,601 megawatts, leaving a deficit of 1,619 megawatts.
That mismatch is the hard part. Solar is strongest when the sun is high, but the toughest hours often arrive after sunset, when households want lights, fans, and refrigeration all at once. Reuters reported that Cuba is pursuing a China-backed buildout of solar parks and targeting 24 percent of electricity generation from renewables by 2030, alongside storage and other upgrades, because panels alone cannot stabilize an aging grid.
Espinosa’s workshop shows what distributed energy looks like when the grid is unstable. The same EFE-based reporting that tracked the solar tricycle installs also described the government promoting electric transport options during fuel shortages, including for essential trips like taking dialysis patients to treatment.
But scaling this kind of fix is not just about ingenuity. Panels, charge controllers, wiring, and batteries depend on imports and repairs, and Cuba’s larger solar push depends heavily on foreign partners and hardware flows that can be disrupted by sanctions and logistics.
The next question is whether these one-off builds become standardized, safer, and easier to finance, or stay informal and limited by parts shortages. If the grid remains shaky, demand for “off-grid” mobility will likely keep rising, not just for tricycles but for small businesses that need predictable power for refrigeration, cooking, and basic services.
For now, the idea is spreading because it fits everyday life. In a city where a blackout can cancel your workday, a roof that quietly charges while you wait at the curb feels like a small piece of control.
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