At the tail end of installing 15 solar plus storage microgrids across Puerto Rico — all of the work charitable — Sonnen and Pura Energia are providing humanitarian relief and a hint of the energy model the island could become.
The latest installation, for a school in the mountain town of Orocovis, comes as over 14 percent of Puerto Ricans remain without power following last Fall’s Hurricane Maria.
Located in a remote, mountain community in southern Puerto Rico, S.U. Matrullas provides K-9 education for some 150 students. Utility grid service was poor and unreliable even before Hurricane Maria struck. The hurricane damaged the school building and homes and wiped out the local grid, as well as water, services infrastructure.
US subsidiary of Germany’s Sonnen and solar company Pura Energia stepped in to fill the void, drawing on equipment and materials donated by the two companies, as well as by other public and private-sector sources. S.U. Matrullas has reopened its doors to students and the community, and now relies entirely on the solar plus storage microgrid, which also includes a backup diesel generator.
The team also has installed solar plus storage microgrids in the communities of La Perla, Loiza, and Morovis. These microgrids are used to power washing machines, refrigerators and some basic electrical outlets. Each microgrid is supporting hundreds of homes whose water was contaminated by the deadly Leptospirosis bacteria.
Microgrid Knowledge spoke with Jose Garcia, Pura Energia’s president and Adam Gentner, Sonnen USA’s director of business development, Latin American Expansion, regarding their charitable microgrid projects in Puerto Rico. They offered insight into what the future may hold in terms of energy infrastructure and services across the US island territory.
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