US residential solar companies Sunrun, Sunnova and power product supplier Generac have been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to install rooftop solar and battery storage systems for vulnerable households in Puerto Rico.
DOE expected the first installations will begin in spring 2024, adding that these companies will enter award negotiations and may be awarded a total of US$400 million in funding, part of the first tranche of Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) announced last year, to deploy residential solar and battery systems for up to 40,000 vulnerable households across Puerto Rico.
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The latest selection was the first round from the 2023 PR-ERF Funding Opportunity Announcement. Eligible beneficiaries will include very low-income, single-family households that are either located in areas that have a high percentage of very low-income households and experience frequent and prolonged power outages; or include a resident with an energy-dependent disability, such as an electric wheelchair user or individual who uses at-home dialysis machines.
“With this announcement, we take a critical step forward in our efforts to ensure that all Puerto Rico residents have reliable electricity, especially the most vulnerable families and communities for whom a lack of power can be life or death,” said US secretary of energy Jennifer Granholm.
In July, the DOE announced that it had allocated US$453.5 million from the PR-ERF.
Apart from two residential solar companies and a supplier, the DOE has also selected five non-profits and cooperatives in Puerto Rico for residential solar installations, including Barrio Eléctrico, Comunidad Solar Toro Negro, Environmental Defense Fund, Let’s Share the Sun Foundation and Solar United Neighbors. They may be awarded a total of US$40 million in funding.
Recently, PV Tech Premium examined Puerto Rico’s residential market. Microgrids, upgrading the grid or building a virtual power plant could be the solutions to Puerto Rico’s energy transition.
According to Chris Rauscher, head of grid services of virtual power plants (VPPs) at Sunrun, the lack of available land to build utility-scale projects and solar-plus-storage in Puerto Rico opens the possibility of having dispatchable power to help alleviate the issues of the grid.