CANTARANA, Cuba (AP) -- It's like a vision of the space age, carved out of the jungle: Thousands of glassy panels surrounded by a lush canopy of green stretch as far as the eye can see, reflecting the few clouds that dot the sky on a scorching Caribbean morning.
Cuba's first solar farm opened this spring with little fanfare, though it has already more than doubled the country's capacity to harvest energy from the sun.
The project is one of seven such farms in the works and it shows a possible road map to greater energy independence in cash-poor Cuba. The country's leaders are being forced to consider renewables to help keep the lights on after four failed attempts to strike it rich with deep-water oil drilling and the death of petro-benefactor Hugo Chavez.
