Rebuilding Puerto Rico With Solar and Batteries

Three months after Hurricane Maria, there are still large swaths of Puerto Rico that don’t have power. It took two months to get half the island’s residents power again -- and hundreds of thousands of people are still without grid access as the holidays approach.

After a slow start, there are mainland crews there working day and night to restore electricity. They've been making progress, but the situation is still dire.

In the aftermath of the disaster, we’re finally getting a sense of what a resilient Puerto Rican grid could look like. The Puerto Rican Energy Commission recently asked for ideas about how to rebuild the grid, and some of the biggest heavy hitters in the industry responded.

In this week's episode, we're talking with Chris Shelton, the chief technology officer at the global electricity provider AES. He'll describe the company's vision for a network of solar-storage mini-grids the most competitive way to make Puerto Rico more resilient from future storms.

This podcast is sponsored by Schneider Electric. Now, you can reap the benefits of a microgrid with no upfront capital through the new microgrid-as-a-service business model from Schneider Electric. Find out how it works.

Recommended reading:

• GTM: Group of Energy Heavyweights Unveils Plan for Puerto Rico’s Future Grid
• The Hill op-ed: Puerto Rico Needs a Weatherized Mini-Grid Network to Survive the Next Maria
• AES Corporation: A Vision for Restoring Puerto Rico’s Grid
• Smart Electric Power Alliance: Build Back Better for Puerto Rico

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