2-26-09, 1:14 am

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 25 (acn) Cuba is setting up a new production line to increase the production of solar panels, meant mainly for projects of the Bolivarian Alternative for Our America (ALBA).

Granma newspaper reports this Wednesday that the assembly of this line is being done at the Ernesto Guevara Electronic Components Enterprise, in western Pinar del Rio province, the only one in Cuba that produces this equipment capable of turning solar radiation into electric power.

Carlos Ivan Cabrera, assistant director of this company, said that the new line will be in production by mid-year and now has a higher level of automation, which includes the welding process, which is now done manually.

The factory manufactures photovoltaic modules of different kinds (from 5 to 160 watts), to customer's requirements, and they are designed in such a way that after 20 years of use they will still have 90 percent of their original capabilities.

These panels supply energy to outlying towns, schools and health facilities in Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, among other markets.

From the Cuban News Agency