forbes.com
When Cuba’s electrical grid collapsed in early March, millions of people were suddenly left without power. Homes lost refrigeration, water pumps stopped working, and large parts of Havana went dark. The outage was triggered by a shutdown at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant, one of the country’s largest power stations, after a boiler malfunction forced it offline.
The blackout affected large parts of the island, stretching from Pinar del Río in the west to Camagüey in the centre, leaving millions without electricity. At its peak, the failure removed more than half of the island’s generation capacity, leaving much of the country without power for hours.
For many Cubans, the consequences were immediate and physical. Food spoiled, public transport stalled, and hospitals relied on backup generators. The blackout reveals a deeper structural problem, that when energy systems are centralized, a single technical failure can cascade across an entire country. The blackout raises an important question for energy systems worldwide about how infrastructure can remain stable when individual components fail.
The Structural Risk Of Centralized Energy
Cuba’s energy crisis has been building for years. Much of the country’s power infrastructure dates back decades, and fuel shortages have repeatedly pushed the grid close to failure. These vulnerabilities have been worsened by US sanctions and restrictions on oil supplies, particularly the recent curtailment of shipments from Venezuela and threats of tariffs on other suppliers. This has tightened fuel availability and pushed the grid closer to repeated failure.
At the same time, the island has long relied on imported oil to keep its thermoelectric plants running. When fuel supplies tighten or infrastructure breaks down, there are few alternative sources of power to keep the system stable.
That vulnerability is a common feature of centralized energy systems. When electricity generation is concentrated in a small number of large plants connected to a single national grid, technical failures can ripple through the entire network.
In Cuba’s case outages have become increasingly frequent, with a series of blackouts since 2024 which affected large parts of the country. Demonstrating the fragility of the system and the difficulty of maintaining aging infrastructure under economic pressure.
Reports indicate Cuba experienced at least five major nationwide blackouts in 2024 and three more in 2025, leading to the March 2026 outage that left millions without power. World Bank data shows Cuba’s electric power consumption per capita has declined from 1,450 kWh in 2019 to 1,102 kWh in 2022 (latest available), far below the global average of approximately 3,670 kWh. This reflects the infrastructure strain during these disruptions.
Why Distributed Energy Changes The Equation
The real solution lies in building a different energy architecture. Distributed energy systems, particularly local microgrids powered by solar, wind or hydro can operate independently when the main grid fails. Instead of relying on a single national system, communities can generate and manage their own electricity locally.
Janet Maingi, Chief Operating Officer at Gridless, a company building renewable powered bitcoin mining microgrids in Africa, says the lesson from Cuba's blackout is clear.
“Resilient energy systems need both distributed renewables and flexible demand. Models like Gridless can help balance supply and demand in real time, reducing the risk of widespread grid failures.”
Miners consume large amounts of electricity, but they also have one unusual characteristic. They can switch off almost instantly without damaging equipment or disrupting other systems. Flexible loads help stabilize grids by absorbing excess electricity when supply is high and reducing consumption when demand rises.
Maingi adds, “When a single plant failure can take down a national grid, it highlights how fragile centralized systems are. Pairing distributed renewables like solar with flexible demand can help stabilize supply and make energy systems far more resilient.”
In practical terms, miners can help stabilize grids powered by intermittent renewable energy, particularly solar and wind.
Mining As A Buyer Of Last Resort
For developing economies, the most important role mining can play is economic. Renewable energy projects often struggle financially when there is no immediate demand for the electricity they produce. Solar farms, for example, may generate excess power during the day that cannot be stored or sold.
Bitcoin mining creates a buyer of last resort for that electricity. When demand is low, miners can consume excess energy that would otherwise go to waste. When demand rises, they can shut down and release power back to the grid.
Real world examples already show how this model can work in practice. In rural Zambia, Gridless operates renewable powered microgrids where bitcoin mining monetizes surplus hydropower. This helps bring affordable electricity to remote communities that previously had none. The same model appears at larger scale in Texas, where mining operations absorb excess wind and solar power, helping balance the ERCOT grid and reduce energy curtailment.
Bitcoin mining can turn stranded or intermittent energy into an economic asset, accelerating the rollout of distributed systems even in resource constrained environments. Challenges can include upfront costs, but initiatives like Caribbean resilience programs offer funding paths.
This economic floor can make small scale renewable projects financially viable in places where traditional grid infrastructure is weak or unreliable. In other words, energy production no longer has to depend entirely on a central grid.
Infrastructure And Sovereignty
The blackout in Cuba shows how energy infrastructure shapes national resilience, affecting economic stability, political independence and everyday life. When power generation depends on centralized systems, the consequences of failure spread quickly and widely. When energy systems are distributed and locally controlled, communities gain more resilience and more autonomy.
Rachel Geyer, Chair of the European Bitcoin Energy Association, says the shift toward renewable energy is forcing grids to become more flexible. She told Forbes, “Europe’s goal of reaching at least 42.5% renewable energy by 2030 will only be achievable if energy systems become far more flexible. Bitcoin miners that can ramp their electricity use up when renewable power is abundant and power down when the grid is tight can act as a powerful demand side tool to help balance Europe’s clean energy future.”
Whether the challenge appears in Central America, Africa, the United States or Europe, the underlying issue is the same. Energy systems must become more flexible, more distributed and less dependent on single points of failure.
The same principle increasingly applies to money and information. Systems built on decentralized protocols, whether energy networks, digital verification systems or monetary networks like Bitcoin, reduce reliance on a single authority by replacing trust with open, verifiable infrastructure that anyone can access.
In a world where grids fail, institutions falter and trust in information is under pressure, that architectural shift may matter more than ever. Energy resilience and monetary resilience may increasingly rely on the same principle, building systems that do not depend on a single point of failure.