Cuban officials have long had the opportunity to encourage solar power as one solution to national energy problems. But October’s sweeping outages show little progress has been made.

Cuba's power-grid operator said it had restored electricity to parts of Havana on Monday following multiple grid collapses over the past four days, while Tropical Storm Oscar lashed the island's eastern end.

Electricity outages have paralyzed an already-crippled economy, leading to shortages of everything from cash to running water.

As Cuban authorities were struggling to reconnect the country’s decrepit power grid on Sunday, a category-one hurricane barrelled into the east of the island, dumping heavy rain and lashing the area with winds.

Seventy percent of Cuba's population has power again after a nationwide blackout triggered by the collapse of the island's largest power plant, and as the country recovers from Hurricane Oscar,

Electricity has been restored to half of Havana, the Cuban capital's power company reported Monday, four days after the start of a nationwide blackout that authorities have struggled to address.