When the grid fails and fuel disappears, ordinary household inventions are becoming essential tools for food, transport, communication, and staying cool.

Mass power outages and fuel shortages are forcing Cubans to find simple ways to keep their households running. The situation is further complicated by the US oil blockade, as well as cuts in energy supplies from Venezuela and Mexico.

As stated by CNN

Dayan Marrero, a third-year computer science student at Havana’s Agrarian University, shares practical tips on Instagram for living without a reliable power supply. In his videos, he explains how to conserve phone battery, store food without a refrigerator, cope with the heat, and find a weak mobile internet signal.

I had never even imagined that I would become a content creator.

– Dayan Marrero

In Marrero’s home in the former sugar town of Caraballo, a rechargeable fan with a built-in light is especially popular. His video about a homemade antenna for receiving an unstable mobile signal is approaching 800,000 views. The blogger plans to expand his presence on TikTok, although access to the app is restricted by US sanctions.

How Cubans are coping with fuel and power shortages

Island residents are combining readily available technology with traditional ways of managing their households. Farmers pasteurize milk over charcoal, while families install solar panels, batteries, and inverters. In cities, passengers are transported in solar-powered electric tricycles, while tour guides grind coffee by hand for the small number of visitors.

Fifty-seven-year-old Osiris Hernandez has worked as a guide in Vinales, one of Cuba’s ecotourism centers, for more than half his life. He operates a boat at the tourist attraction known as “Indian Cave,” but now has almost no customers. According to official figures, tourist arrivals to the island fell by 62% from January to July compared with the same period a year earlier.

Hernandez has set up guest rooms in his home, cooks over charcoal, and uses a rechargeable fan with a lighting function. Solar panels connected through an inverter power household appliances and make it possible to keep at least one freezer running.

At the El Olivo agroecological farm, Osnel Corrales and his family have installed solar panels and batteries to produce dairy products. Because of the fuel shortage, the industrial generator is rarely turned on. The milk is first heated over charcoal and then cooled in special containers using electricity from the solar system.

The farm produces yogurt and cheese, which it sells at its own shop in Vinales and also supplies to customers in Havana. At the same time, the decline in tourism has caused demand to plummet. The fuel shortage also makes travel more difficult for visitors who continue to come to Cuba.

Solar-powered tricycles partly replace buses

The fuel crisis has nearly eliminated traffic jams from Havana’s streets, but it has also caused a severe shortage of buses. Some transportation services have been taken over by a private fleet of solar-powered electric tricycles. Residents of the city, whose population is around 1.8 million, use them every day.

A driver named Augusto rents a modern tricycle for approximately 9,000 Cuban pesos, or $15, a day. The price does not depend on the number of passengers. The vehicle is equipped with a small fuel-powered engine, three rechargeable batteries, and a solar panel on the roof. The batteries can be charged from the power grid when electricity is available or by sunlight.

The tricycle can carry up to six passengers. Transport operators have divided Havana into routes based on distance, battery capacity, and charge levels. In this way, solar-powered transport, rechargeable fans, and independent energy systems have become practical survival tools for Cubans amid the fuel and power crisis.