US 2024 Election: Biden Administration supports clean energy projects in Puerto Rico

By agreenerlifeagreenerworld on October 17, 2024 • ( 2 Comments )

By Anders Lorenzen

With the support of the US government body, the Department of Energy (DOE) four clean energy projects are moving forward in the US territory of Puerto Rico.

The clean energy projects could offer vital resilience for the island and arhiapelago which due to its geographical position 1,600 km southwest of Miami in Florida, is often in the firing line of climate-fueled extreme weather events such as hurricanes.

This week, the DOE announced it had agreed to a $861 million loan guarantee that is to finance the construction of two solar PV farms and two battery storage projects.

Increased energy resilience and security

The 3.2 million people of Puerto Rico have had a tough run over the course of the past several years. The electricity grid of the Territory based in the Caribbean has been battered by hurricanes with people in remote mountain towns having been left without power for nearly a year after Hurricane Maria made landfall in 2017 killing nearly 3,000 people – a large proportion of those casualties was according to studies due to the powerful category 5 hurricane had knocked out power.

*Graph showing electricity supply dropping off a clip in Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria. Graph credit: US Energy Information Administration via Wikimedia.*

Commenting on the projects, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said: “President (Joe) Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris understand that access to reliable energy is a matter of life or death – especially in the face of climate change-fueled natural disasters that are increasing in intensity and frequency.”

It is estimated that the solar projects, annually will produce enough power to power 43,000 homes and in return enhance Puerto Rico’s grid reliability and energy security – according to the DOE. The two solar projects known as Marahu will together have a generating capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) with the battery energy storage facilities having a capacity of 285 MW. The facilities will be located in the municipalities of Guayama and Salinas.

In 2022, President Biden authorised the $1 billion of funding for the creation of the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) which is being administered by DOE’s Grid Deployment Office. It was created with the objective to drive key investments in renewable and resilient energy infrastructure in Puerto Rico.