China provides technical assistance to Cuba for construction of bioelectric energy plant

In June, 2013, Cuba announced plans to build a 20 MW power plant fueled by sugarcane residue, marking the island's first foray into electricity generation using biofuel. The plant would be built with Chinese technology and technical support.

Construction was projected to begin at the end of 2013 at a sugar refinery in the western province of Matanzas, Prensa Latina said that year.

Delays subsequently ensued, and the first stone was placed in April 2017, with actual construction commencing in March 2018. While the plant was scheduled to be operational by November 2019, Hurricane Irma caused further delays in construction.

Both boilers were synchonized to the power grid and operational by April 24th, 2020, and final work on road systems and administrative buildings were completed by the end of that year. The originally estimated cost of the plant was 60 million USD, although the actual cost totaled around $180M.

While the project was financed by a partnership between the British company Havana Energy and the Cuban company Zerus, via a mixed enterprise named BioPower S.A., the Chinese company Shanghai Electric was encharged with engineering, procurement, construction, and startup.

About 325 Chinese specialists and technicians worked on the project during construction, and a contract was signed pledging that Chinese specialists would continue operating the plant along with Cuban personnel for two years, until the guarantee period expired.