Micro grids slar install#

“We can change our energy system, it can be done - we have shown that it can be done.”

“What we are doing with the microgrid is a reference for what can and should be done in other municipalities in Puerto Rico,” he told me.

Assist design review, planning and analysis for 1.7-MW wind project, 1.5-MW concentrated solar project upgrades, power system study and microgrid at Tooele Army Depot (U.S. Massol-Deyá said he wants the event to make “a political statement” to get more of Puerto Rico off fossil fuels. 2-MW solar project at Dugway Proving Ground (U.S. “It’s a beacon of light, both figuratively and literally, in times of need.”Ĭasa Pueblo and the Honnold Foundation will inaugurate the microgrid on Saturday with a community-wide celebration, including a festive “Marcha del Sol” through downtown. “It’ll do the kind of things that really help communities keep together during power outages and natural disasters,” Trujillo said. Now, the microgrid will expand residents’ access to off-grid electricity, giving them the ability to refrigerate food and medicine, charge electronic devices, and more. Here's HowĬasa Pueblo used to own the only building in Adjuntas equipped with solar panels capable of meeting the community’s needs during an outage. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Money saved by not buying power from Puerto Rico’s main power company will support maintaining the microgrid and starting new community projects, according to the Honnold Foundation. The system includes some 700 panels mounted on seven buildings in the town’s central plaza and a battery storage system capable of providing up to 187 kilowatts of power.* The batteries can provide enough off-grid electricity to keep 14 downtown businesses running for up to 10 days, serving as community hubs in case of an extended power outage.īusiness owners and residents will run the microgrid through a nonprofit called the nonprofit Community Solar Energy Association of Adjuntas, which will sell electricity to the commonwealth’s grid through a power purchase agreement.

Micro grids slar install#

“This is a first-of-its-kind project,” said Kate Trujillo, deputy director of the nonprofit Honnold Foundation, which helped install the microgrid alongside the Adjuntas-based nonprofit Casa Pueblo. The community’s 17,600 residents now host the archipelago’s first cooperatively managed solar microgrid - a network of photovoltaic panels and battery storage units that will use renewable energy to keep the lights on and power flowing during a power outage. are at the top of the list, but it is solar that seems to be the technology of choice. Microgrids powered by diesel generators, natural gas generators, fuel cells, flow batteries, etc. Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, is celebrating a milestone this week as it completes the final phase in a project to boost its energy resiliency. Commercial and industrial customers are showing a growing interest in DER technologies that quickly address correcting power outages when they happen.