Building a resilient Puerto Rico

When Hurricane Maria roared through Puerto Rico, it not only wrought severe damage to the island’s infrastructure, it created a public health emergency.

What if a severe weather event, like Maria, or a major disruption occured in any one of the communities where your business operations are located? As the frequency and severity of storms increase, odds of it happening are ever-more likely.

The good news? From the wreckage of the storm has emerged an opportunity for Puerto Rico to prepare for the future and be a model of innovation and resilience for areas vulnerable to climate change.

The hurricane was dramatic turning point, giving rise to a widespread “aha” moment of recognition that fundamental change to the island’s energy system was needed. Suddenly there was real desire to not just build back the same way, dependent on fossil fuels and an outdated infrastructure.

Puerto Rico’s citizens deserve clean, reliable and affordable electricity. Resilient solutions to the island’s energy crisis can be powered by distributed energy systems, including microgrids. These mini-energy service stations can maximize renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, and can run backed by battery storage and intelligent software. Linked to the larger grid — ensuring the delivery of affordable, clean and reliable energy every day — these systems can be designed to also separate from the system during emergencies to keep the lights on in parts of the island that need it most. To that end, a landmark new energy law passed in 2019, and a legal foundation to move toward a clean, 100% renewable energy system was created.

So while Puerto Rico is poised for a clean energy revolution, now is time for implementation! Investment in clean energy solutions is needed to:

• Assist communities as they stand up and seek innovative solutions in partnership with private sector players to meet the island-wide energy goal
• Tackle unique challenges faced by the island’s communities, private sector players willing to be first-movers in developing solutions are needed for this market

There’s no time to waste. Climate change is only accelerating the risk of the next hurricane, and EDF+Business is facilitating cross-sector collaboration. We want to engage your business and investment leaders to:

• Work on-the-ground with communities to understand their energy needs, goals and the barriers they face to build a more prosperous future.
• Understand the unique opportunities and identify strategies to mitigate project risk, as well as aggregate projects into larger investments that can scale resilience efforts

We welcome business and investment leader. who have developed innovative technologies and want to be part of a long-lasting solution for Puerto Rico, to get involved. Please contact Jake Hiller at jhiller@edf.org.