Over 40+ organizations, enterprise and church buildings have requested Congress to approve $5 billion in wanted spending to strengthen Puerto Rico’s vitality grid. They’ve despatched a letter that asks for funding to replace Puerto Rico’s outdated vitality system.
“It has been 5 years since Hurricane María and we nonetheless undergo from frequent blackouts,” mentioned David Ortiz, Photo voltaic United Neighbors Puerto Rico Program Director. “It’s time to repair this drawback. Photo voltaic vitality and battery storage is the answer. It could save Congress billions of {dollars} sooner or later, everytime we get hit by a storm.”
Puerto Rico’s vitality grid stays poorly managed, centralized and weak to catastrophic failure when main storms hit. The system depends on costly fossil gas vegetation and getting old transmission traces.
When this technique fails, it could possibly depart communities with out electrical energy for weeks at a time. Earlier funding efforts have targeted on rebuilding present infrastructure. This has stored the identical weak system in place.
Photo voltaic and storage techniques face up to storms and supply steady electrical energy. This is the reason these teams have requested Congress to fund a brand new, higher electrical system. The cash within the request would pay for rooftop photo voltaic and battery storage techniques to profit low-income and weak households. It could additionally fund photo voltaic and storage for non-profit organizations and municipalities. These bigger techniques would function a part of group resiliency tasks.
“Puerto Ricans from all walks of life desire a resolution to this life-threatening vitality disaster,” Ortiz mentioned. “We hope Congress decides to help this invoice.”
Information merchandise from Photo voltaic United Neighbors
