Is solar the answer when the government can't keep the lights on Puerto Rico? Certainly hope so. On this episode of Parts Pervilion, we talked to Bloomberg Environment's Rebecca Kern, who just got back from the island to see how things are going months after the storm. Hello, and welcome to a very special episode of Parts per Billion, the environmental policy podcast from Bloomberg Environment. I'm your host David Schultz.
Today we're speaking with Rebecca Kern. She covers energy here at Bloomberg, and she just got back from a five day trip to Puerto Rico. Believe it or not, she said, there are still lots of places where the power still still isn't back. And this is an especially auspicious time for Puerto Rico because just days ago the Army Corps of Engineers announced it was completing major operations there, though not everyone thinks the job is fully completed. And we're
also on the verge of another hurricane season. Everyone's crossing their fingers that this year goes better than last year, although it's hard to see how it could be any worse. Rebecca said she noticed a very stark contrast when she was in Puerto Rico between the islands capital San Juan, and it's more remote rural areas well. It's interesting you see San Juan is the main city and that is up and running, but you still run into traffic lights that are not powered. So driving in San Juan is
a little like a little crazy. But you leave the city for the mountain range where it's the central mountain range across the island where this is where they're having the hardest time powering up again. The distribution and transmission lines were wiped out. So I did go to the mountain region and that is where there's a lot more
trees down, limbs and power lines still not connected. And we should say this is nine months after Hurricane Maria, which is the big hurricane last year that the devastated the island and they're still having problems. Yes, we are approaching nine months. It was September twentieth was Maria, and then two weeks before was Irma, a smaller a smaller
storm but still did damage. The people I met in this area called Bayomone outside of San Juan lost power in Erma the first storm and they still don't have power. And how why has it been so difficult to restore power. What's what's the hold up? Well, it's a lot of things. The island is seventy four billion dollars in debt, so they have that's that's it. That sounds like a big problem.
The utility is nine billion in debt that was of that total, and they have not done good maintenance on their grid that was built in the fifties and it just hasn't been maintained. And they haven't really had any real incentive because the publicly owned utility, not investor own, is a lot of ours in the us R, so they have shareholders, they have a reason to keep updating their since so it was never really set up well to begin with. And then a category for hurricane hits it.
And then you have a mountainous region I referred to in the middle of the island and it's really difficult to power that area. And you mentioned that the Army Corps is leaving the island and they were doing a lot. It sounds like they were doing a lot of the construction. Like what kind of things did you see them doing. FEMA was the first is the main US agency sent down there in emergencies, and then they test Army Corps for emergency grid repair, and so they've been down there
and they then contracted to other groups. The crews I met up with were utility, the prep of the Portico Electric Power Authority. Army Corps was all over the island too, and they're just repairing lines and cutting down tree limbs. So it's May right now, we're approaching another hurricane season. It's just around the corner. Do you think that the island is ready? I mean, is FEMA and our FEMA and the Army Corps is going to be back in
a few months. The hurricane season starts June first. Technically we saw these storms hit in September. We don't know. FEMA says they are committed to be on the island for years to come, so they're not leaving any years to come. Yeah, that they said, for as long as it takes, we're going to be committed. So they're not leaving. But they were not doing the individual utility electric repairs. They have a broader mission. No, I've talked to a lot of people that the grid is band aidd it
is not turning band aid into a verb. Yes, yes, yes, so it's not They didn't repair every line. I saw lines where like a splint, like a separate piece of wood was put in the broken wood to just keep it together. Wow. And many people have admitted that to get an emergency situation, you just do what you can get online and that's all Army Cross has to do. Their mandate was emergency restoration and repair and replacement was not their mandate and they will tell you that. So
it's the utilities job to really replace. But it sounds like based on your reporting that a lot of people are kind of just have given up on the utility. As you mentioned the publicly owned utility, which I think is called Preppa. There have just given up and there's a ton of anger understandable at the utility and they're looking for a new solution, and it sounds like that solution is solar. Yes. So that was the other part of my reporting trip was seeing meeting with solar installers
who are pairing solar panels with batteries. It's a package and that's because you can basically get an island mode. Therefore after island mode, yeah, it's a term of like where you can operate separate from the grid so you can power during the day with solar, but when it's attached to the battery, you back up that power for the use the demand of the electricity, then not in
the evening when the sun isn't shining. It sounds like the people installing the solar panels, though, are not totally comfortable with people just relying on those for their power. They think it's good to be grid connected because you know, if a solar or battery you know, panel word and
not operate, what is your backup? Your backup could be the power from the grid, or you could own a diesel generator, which is what everyone else has gone out and done as well, just not environmentally sound and expensive. There were long lines for gasoline to power the diesel generators, and right after the sermon, they're shortage is they had to limit how much they could give to people. But you also spoke with a solar panel installer. Yeah, his
name was Victor Gonzalez. He's president of winmar PV and he is the one who said, you know, he's heard a lot anger from customers with Preppa who want to just you know, get out and you know, bash their meter from Preva after they get their solar and battery system there are customers there who are able to just don't want to deal anymore with the power company. They just want to have their solar panels and their batteries.
And most of those people, we tell them, look, you still have the greed, don't cut the cable, just keep it there because it doesn't cost you anything. It costs you three dollars a month to keep your connection to the power. But most of them, they are so irritated, you know, they are so upset with the prepper that they know they're waiting for us to finish our installation, to just go there with a hammer and smash the power meter. And you say, I don't want to deal
with you. But he also, you know, is saying we need we need our grid because you know, for backup purposes, and you can send it back to the grid the
excess power you get from solar. And I did travel to an island off Puerto Rico with him Culebra, which even the utility is envisioning as could be a micro grid where they don't have to they could operate with solar and battery powers, and Victor has expressed interests in powering that further with solar and battery he already has one at least a few solar farms there paired with battery.
One is running the waste treatment plant, and then ultimately, you know, in your opinion, based on what you saw, do you think that the enthusiasm for solar in Puerto Rico is a little premature or do you think that this is you know, how people will survive natural disasters in the future, which are you know, by all accounts becoming more frequent, more intense. Is this really how it's going to work, or is it, you know, just sort
of wishful thinking. The utility CEO who started in March, he is all on board with a multi generation source, so he wants renewable to be part of it. Right now, they make up one percent of the grid and it's a very sunny place, and I would say the optimism is sunny for solar there. We see more and more solar installers moving down there. US companies Sonova and sun Run have already installed. They've donated systems right after the storm.
But they are getting customers on board, and you need the government backing it, and you need the utility backing it, and we're seeing them warm up to the solar Idea and like I said, batteries will be the pair to make it more resilient and reliable. That was Rebecca Current talking about her recent trip to Puerto Rico. For more of a reporting on the island's recovery, as well as the broader energy industry, visit our website at News dot Bloomberg,
Environment dot com. Lane is produced by myself with help from Jessica Coombs and Rachel Daegel. Our audio engineer is Nicholas and Zelata. Our editor is Marissa Horne. The music for Parts Pavilion is a message by Jizarre. It was used under a Creative Comments license. More information can be found at Betterwithmusic dot com.