Build back solar: the Puerto Ricans who see sun as key to resist climate shocks

[marmar]

Build back solar: the Puerto Ricans who see sun as key to resist climate shocks
Ahead of the Cop 26 climate summit, Nina Lakhani reports from Puerto Rico on the row over how to rebuild the island’s energy system in the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes


(Guardian UK) Rosalina Marrero spends the best part of each day ironing and watching telenovelas at her modest bungalow in Puerto Rico’s coastal Guayama province. When it gets too hot or her asthma plays up due to the toxic coal ash from the nearby power plant, the 78-year-old widow rests on an adjustable hospital bed, clicks on the fan and thanks God for the solar panels on her roof.

Earlier this year, Marrero was among two dozen residents in a low-income, predominantly Black neighbourhood blighted by coal pollution, fitted with a rooftop solar and storage system. Campaigners say systems like hers should be rolled out more widely to tackle the island’s energy crisis and the global climate emergency – both of which are exacerbating racialized health inequalities.

The situation with the electricity is dire.

Puerto Ricans pay more than twice as much for electricity as Americans on the mainland yet earlier this month power cuts to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses caused widespread anger and misery. Traffic lights failed, hospitals used expensive diesel generators to keep dialysis machines and ventilators running, and fires broke out due to fluctuations in voltage.

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Hurricane Maria was a wake-up call: it not only exposed Puerto Rico’s vulnerability to extreme weather events linked to global heating, but also focused attention on the economic and environmental ramifications of the island’s dependence on fossil fuels for local communities and greenhouse gas emissions.

This gave rise to a social movement that came up with a plan called Queremos Sol, or we want sun – an evidence-based roadmap to make Puerto Rico’s energy system self-sufficient by swapping fossil fuels for onsite small solar grids distributed throughout the island. .......(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/18/puerto-rico-solar-power-climate-resilience