Cuban President Díaz-Canel visits Havana plant making solar and housing panels

President Miguel Díaz‑Canel, accompanied by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, Defense Minister Álvaro López Miera and other members of the Council of Ministers, toured a Havana‑based industrial facility that produces expanded polystyrene panels with welded mesh for construction and a line that assembles solar photovoltaic panels. The plant has fabricated more than 3,200 solar panels this year and plans to expand to a double‑shift operation capable of producing about 120 panels daily. The building panels are promoted as an economical, rapid solution that cuts cement usage by 20‑30 % and steel by over 50 %, intended for affordable housing and the retrofitting of shipping containers into livable units. Díaz‑Canel highlighted the need to scale these technologies nationwide to mitigate the country’s energy shortages caused by the U.S. blockade and oil scarcity, and to support electric‑vehicle infrastructure and cold‑chain logistics.