Cuba is in the middle of its worst energy crisis in decades. The national grid has collapsed multiple times since 2024, leaving millions of people without power for days at a stretch. As of early 2026, eight of the country's major thermal generation plants are offline, the ones still running operate at just 34 per cent of rated capacity, and the daily power shortfall regularly exceeds 1,500 megawatts. Fuel deliveries from Venezuela have dropped sharply, foreign currency reserves are too low to source alternatives, and a January 2026 US executive order imposing tariffs on countries supplying oil to Cuba has tightened the squeeze further. Against this backdrop, a 21-year-old from the outskirts of Havana has built something small, practical, and genuinely useful: a workshop that fits solar panels onto electric tricycles and gives the workers who depend on them a fighting chance of finishing their working day.Cuba's fuel and electricity crisis is forcing workers into increasingly precarious transport situationsElectric tricycles have become one of the more visible solutions to Havana's transport crunch. Petrol is scarce, public transport is under severe strain, and for many residents, a battery-powered tricycle is not a lifestyle choice it is a working vehicle. Drivers use them to carry goods for markets, transport passengers along busy routes, and run informal delivery services that keep households supplied.The problem is that the same energy crisis crippling the national grid also hits these vehicles. Wall-outlet charging depends on power being available, and in 2025, Cuba's daily power interruptions averaged 1,531 megawatts, peaking at over 2,000 megawatts during the worst periods. A tricycle driver who cannot charge their battery has no income that day. A dead battery mid-route, with passengers or goods on board and hours still left in the working day, is not an inconvenience it is a financial loss that directly affects whether a family eats.How Yadán Pablo Espinosa built a solar panel installation workshop for Havana's electric tricyclesYadán Pablo Espinosa, 21, working from the Arroyo Naranjo district on the southern outskirts of Havana, started with a straightforward idea: put a solar panel on the roof of an electric tricycle and use whatever sunlight the streets of Havana produce to take pressure off the battery. He set up a small workshop with his father, three brothers, and a friend, and in under a month, the team had already installed solar panels on more than 15 electric tricycles.The panels used are rated between 550 and 650 watts. Espinosa told EFE news agency that his system sends power directly and continuously to the motor while the tricycle is moving and switches to charging the battery when the vehicle is stationary. It is a dual-mode setup drive support and passive charging that makes practical use of the kind of stop-start urban movement a delivery or passenger tricycle actually does all day.The metal frame holding the panel also doubles as a roof over the driver's seat, offering shade and rain cover in a city where summer heat is constant and afternoon downpours are frequent. The vehicle's biggest liability in a blackout-prone city its dependence on a fully charged battery, which becomes partially offset by whatever sun is available while it works.What the solar numbers actually mean for electric tricycle range in Cuba's climateCuba has a strong solar resource, with the Ministry of Energy and Mines estimating solar radiation at approximately 0.46 kilowatt-hours per square foot per day. That matters for how realistic Espinosa's system actually is. A 550 to 650-watt panel, under good sunlight conditions across five peak hours, can generate roughly 2.6 to 3.2 kilowatt-hours of usable energy, not enough to replace a full charge, but enough to meaningfully extend range, especially for a tricycle doing short urban trips with regular stops.This is not a claim of energy independence. It is battery relief a supplement that reduces how quickly the main battery depletes, delays the point at which a driver needs to stop and recharge, and adds charging time during stationary periods. For someone doing eight or ten hours of trips in Havana's streets, even a 20 to 30 per cent reduction in battery drain could translate into additional working hours.Two drivers who spoke to EFE confirmed the practical value. Yoandis Castro, 47, who transports goods for markets, said the panel is helping with charging. Orlando Muñoz, 62, who carries passengers near the busy 100 and Boyeros Avenue corridor, said the system gives his tricycle greater performance and keeps the battery alive through his working hours. These are not dramatic claims. They are the kind of modest, operational improvements that matter when every charged battery is a resource.Cuba's national solar push and why street-level innovation matters alongside government targetsThe Cuban government has not been inactive on renewable energy. Under its National Strategy for Energy Transition, approved in March 2025, it has set a target of 24 per cent renewable electricity by 2030. Grid-connected solar capacity grew from roughly 280 megawatts at the end of 2024 to around 1,084 megawatts by the end of 2025. By February 2026, Cuba had, for the first time, generated over 800 megawatts from solar energy in a single day. China's solar panel exports to Cuba rose from $3 million in 2023 to $117 million in 2025, according to data compiled by Ember.But grid-scale solar parks and national targets do not solve the problem of a driver in Arroyo Naranjo whose tricycle battery is dying at noon. Espinosa's workshop addresses a gap that state infrastructure cannot reach: the individual working vehicle, its operator's daily income, and the street-level economy that keeps food and goods moving through a city under chronic energy stress.A family workshop, not a government programme and what that means for scalingWhat Espinosa built came from no state subsidy, no university research programme, and no manufacturer partnership. It came from a family workshop, sourced panels, fabricated iron supports, and customer-by-customer installation. That origin is part of its significance. It demonstrates how people adapt when official systems move too slowly or cannot meet the need at the scale and speed required.There are real limits. Panels carry a cost that not every driver can absorb upfront. Supply chains for components can break down. Solar roofs on working vehicles need to survive vibration, rain, rough roads, and tropical heat while keeping passengers and loads safe. A poorly secured bracket on a vehicle carrying people is a safety issue, not a minor technical fault.But 15 installations in under a month, with drivers reporting visible improvements in battery performance, suggests the concept is working at the scale it was built for. In a country where the grid generates less power than it did a decade ago and where solar is now genuinely emerging as a lifeline rather than a policy aspiration, that counts.Catch the latest world news and top headlines. Download the TOI App.