Project Title:  Development and Dissemination of the SURE-DSS Tool

Project Location:   Cuba 

Project Duration:   6 months

Project Summary:

The SURE-DSS Tool is a PC-based software system that matches a community’s energy needs to its energy resources and helps identify the most appropriate energy technology for a particular location. It was developed by Imperial College London over six years to highlight the potential of affordable and sustainable small-scale energy solutions in rural communities to significantly improve people’s livelihoods.

Country Profile:  Cuba 

Capital city:  Havana

Population:  11,300,000 

Life Expectancy:  78

Population without access to electricity:  0.5%  

Population living on less than $2 dollars a day:  N/A

Adult Illiteracy Rate:  0.2%

(Source: UNDP Human Index Report)

Current Situation:

The rural population of Cuba often has very limited knowledge about the energy options that are open to them.  They are completely reliant on expensive and polluting forms of energy such as candles, paraffin lamps and diesel generators or are reliant on unreliable government distribution of electricity.

The Project Plan:

The SURE-DSS tool allows communities to gain a better understanding of the available energy options, and make more informed decisions.  Imperial College and Renewable World are currently disseminating and implementing the SURE-DSS Tool in Cuba ensuring that it is well adapted to the local community conditions and can be rolled out within isolated communities throughout these countries.  The project aims to introduce the tool to national and regional governments and practitioners, ensuring that all involved local stakeholders become competent in the use of the software and use it to inform their future energy decisions.  Once adopted, the tool will ensure that future small-scale energy systems are more appropriate and lead to successful future investment in low-carbon and sustainable and appropriate off-grid energy technologies.

Renewable World's Programme Intervention:

Renewable World's input into this programme intervention is through providing social investment and financing to our programme partner - the SURE team at Imperial College London.

The People:

In Cuba the implementation of the SURE Tool is being coordinated by the Centre for Renewable and Biomass Energy Technologies Studies (CETA), at the University Marta Abreu Las Villas, Havana, in co-operation with five other universities.  The aim is to get the Government of Cuba to adopt the SURE Tool and use it throughout rural Cuba.  In Tool has been used successfully in the village of Manantiales, in the Manicaragua region of Cuba.  The tool assessed the impact of all possible energy options on the communities and their resources and recommended replacing the existing diesel generator (which is expensive and polluting) with a new micro-hydro plant due to its long lifespan and the low electricity costs.  Members of the SURE team – funded by Renewable World – helped assess the different options, but also helped manage the construction and installation of the new RE system to supply more than 40 families with a reliable source of clean electricity.  The energy also supplies a community centre which is now an important social community hub, providing a space to hold educational activities and social meetings.