I’ve been working on a panel for the upcoming Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s Building Energy conference in March in Boston (www.nesea.org/...) on
PDPVD: Post-Disaster Renewables Deployment:
Up-to-the-minute review of efforts to deploy renewables post-catastrophe, particularly throughout the Caribbean, but also elsewhere in the immediate post-2017-hurricane-season landscape. As of this draft, 10/18/17, not even one month after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, much is unsure about the future of energy systems, especially electricity, in many areas. Clearly, different islands and regions will be following vastly different pathways, from depopulated Barbuda to "bombed-out" BVI to the hellish conditions in Puerto Rico. Pre-existing PV, in many cases, emerged bruised but repairable. Individual installations that had previously been grid-connected are now scrambling to "island" and connect up with new battery systems. Will renewables make a large impact as the next months go by? Various entities have been talking, others are already working and on-the-ground. What quite will be the yield from the big names, like Branson, Musk, DiCaprio; and what can be accomplished by those who do the work, like SEIA, RMI, SELF? Islands and nations that were already on pathways to PV may now be accelerating their efforts. Come March, much work will still lie ahead. All in the NESEA community need to be enlightened as to these efforts, and emboldened to participate in ongoing deployment.
[The situation on the ground will be developing between now (October) and March, and how deployment plays out will in turn inform the content of this session.]
In the course of my work, I’ve come across at least two efforts to envision how Puerto Rico’s (and the Caribbean’s) energy infrastructure may be rebuilt:
Build Back Better: Reimagining and Strengthening the Power Grid of Puerto Rico
https://www.governor.ny.gov/sites/governor.ny.gov/files/atoms/files/PRERWG_Report_PR_Grid_Resiliency_Report.pdf
This is a joint NY state and Puerto Rico initiative.
A Resilient, Cost-effective Energy Future for Puerto Rico
https://rmi.org/news/resilient-cost-effective-energy-future-puerto-rico/
The Governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, is a graduate of MIT and I understand he met with energy experts there earlier in December so there may be something coming out of that meeting too.
In addition,
The Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands Equitable Rebuild Act is cosponsored in the Senate by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Reps. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.) and Darren Soto (D-Fla.) will introduce a companion bill in the House. The bill is endorsed by 75 organizations.
If people want to contribute to Puerto Rico’s efforts here are some of the other efforts on the ground that I’ve found:
Family, institution, and neighborhood scale:
Institution, neighborhood, and town scale:
The American Virgin Islands were also deeply affected by the recent hurricanes but get much, much less attention than Puerto Rico. US Virgin Islands Recovery (
https://www.usvirecovery.org) is one place you can go to find out more about the situation in St Croix, St Thomas, and St John.
I wonder why every diary about Puerto Rico (and the American Virgin Islands) does not include contacts for donations and other such help. It would be good to make it a practice by those who are following these issues.