PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba - With China's help, Cuba hopes to produce more solar panels as part of efforts to promote renewable energy and bring electricity to remote areas.

Chinese raw materials are guaranteeing production at Cuba's only photovoltaic panel manufacturing plant, the Ernesto Che Guevara Electronic Components, in the western province of Pinar del Rio, 160 kilometers west of Havana.

"We buy raw materials from China that are the same quality as those from the United States or Europe," the plant's director, Ivan Gonzalez, told Xinhua.