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Support Green Energy for Puerto Rico

What's At Stake

Congress recently passed $1 billion for Puerto Rico to jumpstart the transition from a dilapidated electricity grid to rooftop solar and battery storage. This major step forward happened because environmental groups in Puerto Rico pushed the Biden administration to help Puerto Rico transition to clean, affordable, reliable rooftop solar. The $1 billion is a significant down payment on a clean energy future for Puerto Rico that could provide solar for hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans. But far more needs to be done to fully transition Puerto Rico to 100 percent clean energy. 

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Tell the Biden administration that it should use $9.5 billion of $12 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, allotted after Hurricane Maria, to provide all 3 million residents of Puerto Rico with rooftop solar, the only sensible clean solution for the archipelago.

FEMA intends to spend billions on a dilapidated centralized grid in Puerto Rico that is 97 percent powered by fossil fuels. The grid is dependent on vulnerable power lines that traverse Puerto Rico from north to south, which fall down and cause massive outages with every major storm. 

There’s an opportunity for revolutionary change. The Department of Energy has a legal mandate to ensure federal funds under its control are used in a climate-resilient way. And Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was tasked with centralizing the money for energy modernization in Puerto Rico.  

The climate-resilient solution in Puerto Rico is rooftop solar and battery storage, connected by small microgrids, that can supply clean energy even during storms. Rooftop solar eliminates the pollution caused by burning coal, oil and gas to supply a central grid and is far more affordable. 

A rooftop solar revolution in Puerto Rico would help Biden fulfill his climate agenda. And Puerto Rico would be much further in achieving its goal of 100 percent clean by 2050. 

Why is rooftop solar the solution?  

  • Puerto Rico has an abundance of sunlight year-round that can generate more than four times the energy that residents need. 
  • Rooftop solar is much cheaper, and would end the need to pay bills to an outside, polluting corporation. 
  • Rooftop solar is very reliable and climate resilient. People who had access to rooftop solar kept their lights on during hurricane Fiona because they weren’t dependent on a centralized grid and damaged power lines. 
  • Rooftop solar empowers Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans don’t need an outside corporation bilking the people with some of the highest electricity rates in the country. The sun is the only power we need for energy independence. 
  • Rooftop solar is a healthy solution. We don’t need to burn toxic oil, gas and coal and use power lines for electricity, resulting in needless deaths when power lines fall and break, and life-saving medical equipment fails. 

We can’t afford to leave these benefits on the table. Help us convince the Biden administration to provide rooftop solar and storage for everyone in Puerto Rico. 

A technician installs a solar energy system at a home in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, in July 2018.
A technician installs a solar energy system at a home in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, in July 2018. (Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo / AP)

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