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With a Crippled Energy Grid, Puerto Rico Turned to Solar Power. (Spoiler: It’s Working)

September 11, 2023 jrobinson

After Hurricane Maria devastated the island, residents launched community-based solar projects to keep the lights on. Activists call it an “energy insurrection.”

Downed power lines in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria — Hurricane Maria knocked down power lines across Puerto Rico. Some remote villages were without electricity for nearly a year.

On Sept. 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico and devastated the island’s aging and inefficient power grid.

Air conditioning couldn’t work. Water couldn’t be pumped to higher floors. Hospitals couldn’t maintain lifesaving machinery. Diesel and propane generators helped, but they’re costly and unwieldy and pump noxious fumes into the air.

It would be late November before more than half the island’s 3.4 million residents had electricity. And some remote areas were without power for nearly a year.

Coming just weeks after Hurricane Irma skirted the island, Maria was the worst natural disaster in Puerto Rico’s history, with nearly 3,000 fatalities and more than $90 billion in damages. More hardships followed, including a category 6.4 earthquake in January 2020 and Hurricane Fiona in September 2022.

Even in the absence of natural disasters, though, outages, rolling blackouts and appliance-frying surges are a daily reality. This ongoing energy crisis has forced residents to evolve quickly on renewables, especially solar power: The US territory has more rooftop solar installations per capita than all but six US states. (And that doesn’t include smaller systems that aren’t hooked up to the grid.)

Puerto Rico is especially well positioned to embrace solar: Studies suggest it receives enough sunlight to meet its residential needs more than four times over.

“Everyone should be keeping their eye on Puerto Rico,” said Lauren Rosenblatt, co-founder of Barrio Electrico, which provides solar energy to low- and moderate-income households on the island.

“What the [rest of the] US is going to see is that there are a lot more options for resiliency and sustainability,” Rosenblatt told CNET. “Not every solution that works in Puerto Rico will work in your community, but they’re generating myriad solutions. We’re lucky to have them leading the way.”

Climate change is putting energy infrastructure to the test all over the US, and the challenges Puerto Ricans face — and the solutions they’re finding — could be a glimpse at the future for those far from the island.

Here’s what Puerto Rico can teach us about energy resilience, the benefits of solar and the role of community groups, utilities and government in reaching a sustainable future.

Solar power is critical to climate resiliency

Climate change is making hurricanes more extreme and destructive. Scientists at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences found that, from 1850 to 2020, human-generated greenhouse gases led to an increase of more than 1 degree Celsius in global average surface temperature.

That warming trend “will lead to yet further increases in North Atlantic hurricane season extreme rainfall rates and accumulated amounts,” the researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications in April 2022.

As the intensity of severe weather incidents increases, so will the frequency of power outages. Solar panels, though, are designed to withstand hurricane-force winds: When Hurricane Maria hit, a VA hospital in San Juan remained fully operational while others lost power, thanks to its solar setup.

Javier Rúa-Jovet is chief policy officer for the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico, a regional trade association. After Maria, his home in a middle-class part of San Juan was without power for six weeks.

Relying on a 17-kilowatt generator for power, he said, was traumatizing.

“My whole nervous system was in tune with the noises it made,” Rúa-Jovet told CNET. “Every day I was afraid the generator was going to die.”

By the time Fiona made landfall last year, though, Rúa-Jovet had connected a Tesla Powerwall to his rooftop array and was able to maintain full power. Now, whenever there’s an outage, the system kicks in automatically, often in less than a second.

“Sometimes you see the lights flicker when there’s an outage,” he said. “But usually you don’t know until you get a notification on your phone.”

Crises can bring opportunities for innovation

A worker installs solar panels in Puerto Rico

Before Hurricane Maria, there were maybe 9,000 rooftop solar setups in Puerto Rico, according to Rúa-Jovet, and most weren’t connected to batteries.

“After Maria, solar is basically universally installed with storage,” he said. “It was really a paradigm-shifting event.”

New installations have grown from a few hundred a month to more than 3,000.

In January 2022, there were 42,000 homes and businesses with solar-plus-battery projects in Puerto Rico, more than eight times the number before Irma and Maria.

This summer, that number is nearing 80,000.

That’s still only a fraction of the close to 1.2 million households in Puerto Rico, but the desire to move beyond the grid is growing exponentially.

Solutions have to be cost-effective

In Puerto Rico, power isn’t just unreliable, it’s expensive. Residential electricity averaged 24.17 cents per kilowatt-hour in May, compared with 16.14 cents in the continental US. The cost of importing petroleum, natural gas and coal means electricity can be up to twice as much as it is on the mainland.

Solar is more reliable and cheaper in the long run, but installing a rooftop system still runs between $10,000 and $13,000. That’s a steep price in a territory where the median household income is just under $22,000.

Financing options grew substantially after Hurricane Maria. Rúa-Jovet said solar companies like Sunrun and Sunnova offer terms that enable residents with a credit score of about 640 to get a rooftop setup without any upfront costs.

Instead of monthly electricity bills, he said, approved customers pay roughly the same amount in loan payments “for power that is clean and doesn’t go away.”

And unlike energy costs, the loan rates are fixed.

Vulnerable populations can’t be left behind

While Sunnova and Sunrun offer solar loans, there are still many in the commonwealth who can’t afford financing. According to the US Census Bureau, 40.5% of Puerto Ricans live in poverty, more than twice the 19.7% poverty level in Mississippi, the poorest state in the US.

“There is a place for for-profit companies like Sunnova and Sunrun to offer [financing], but it’s not a silver bullet,” said Andrew Hermann, executive director of the Monte Azul Foundation, a nonprofit focused on energy and food equity. “We’re going to need a lot of different solutions.”

On July 31, the US Department of Energy announced more than $450 million was being allocated for distributed solar and battery storage in some of Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said her agency was committed to expanding access to clean energy in Puerto Rico, “especially for the communities most at risk.”

The funds will enable up to 40,000 setups to be installed in low-income areas hit with frequent and prolonged outages. (Households with energy-dependent devices like electric wheelchairs and at-home dialysis machines are also being targeted.)

“That’s the best population to direct incentives toward,” Rúa-Jovet said. “It’s very targeted money that will help people that are basically outside of the financing market.”

The investment is part of the $1 billion Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund established by the Biden administration to strengthen the island’s grid and help it reach its clean energy goals. Further investments will be directed at community solar projects, microgrids and grid modernization, according to the Department of Energy.

Community-based solutions can lead the way

A private US-Canadian consortium, Luma Energy took over responsibility for maintaining and improving the island’s utility grid in June 2021. Its predecessor, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, was a government monopoly that filed for bankruptcy following decades of mismanagement, negligence and corruption.

Luma inherited a decrepit system, but it has been blamed for failing to improve service and future-proof the grid.

“Its performance so far has been, in the best case, deficient, and in the worst, dismal,” said Sergio Marxuach, policy director for the Puerto Rican think tank Center for New Economy.

Luma didn’t respond to a request for comment.

On the ground, residents aren’t waiting for Luma — or lawmakers — to provide solutions. In rural areas, grassroots groups are constructing standalone solar networks, known as microgrids, to ensure hospitals, schools and fire stations have power.

In Caguas, about 20 miles south of San Juan, donated solar panels were attached to the roof of an abandoned office building, transforming it into a supply center that doesn’t rely on electricity from the utility.

“There are many communities — small communities — that are really making big waves and developing solar-plus-storage microgrids,” Hermann said.

There’s been so much interest, he added, “because so many people are just fed up with the current system. These communities are coming together to really choose a different path.”

Arturo Massol-Deyá, executive director of the community environmental group Casa Pueblo, calls the movement an “energy insurrection.”

Casa Pueblo has been the driving force behind community solar in Adjuntas, a mountainside town of about 18,000. In an area where some people were without power for 11 months after Maria, the organization was able to install 700 solar panels and provide 220 kilowatts to more than a dozen businesses downtown. Second-hand EV batteries donated by automaker Rivian provide a megawatt of battery storage and allow Puerto Rico’s first community-owned microgrid to provide power independent of the grid for up to 10 days.

Casa Pueblo worked with nonprofits like the Honnold Foundation and the Community Solar Energy Association of Adjuntas to fund the $2 million project. And while the merchants pay for the energy they use, their rates are significantly lower than Luma’s. Profits are used for maintenance and to finance rooftop solar installations for low-income residents.

The endeavor’s success has earned Adjuntas the nickname “Pueblo Solar,” or “Solar Town.”

The Monte Azul Foundation is working to develop a smaller microgrid in Maricao, a village of less than 5,000 residents that sees outages several times a week. It’ll only generate between 100 and 150 kilowatts, but it will power a pharmacy, a gas station and the only bank in Maricao.

“When we don’t have power, we lose access to ATMs and all our financial services because the bank has no backup power,” Hermann said.

But support from the government and utilities is essential

While the federal government has allocated more than $30 billion to help Puerto Rico recover from Maria and the 2020 earthquakes, critics say not enough is being done to develop energy resiliency.

In 2019, the legislative assembly passed the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act, or Act 17, which set an ambitious deadline to use 100% renewable energy by 2050.

“Puerto Rico’s Green New Deal,” as Rúa-Jovet called it, sets a benchmark of 40% of electricity from renewables by 2025 and 60% by 2040. Right now, though, solar, wind and other clean energy sources generate only about 3% of the island’s electricity. The remaining 97% come from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

In February 2022, the government-appointed Puerto Rico Energy Bureau conditionally approved 18 renewable power plants projected to produce 884 megawatts by the end of next year.

That’s supposed to boost the share of electricity from renewables to 23%, but that’s still short of Act 17’s 40% goal. And environmentalists are suing to halt the projects because, they say, the plants will be built on agriculturally valuable land instead of rooftops, parking lots and landfills.

Regulators have also been accused of targeting recovery funds for fossil fuel projects. They even floated the idea of taxing solar users up to 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour to pay down PREPA’s $8.2 billion debt and discourage people from defecting from the grid.

After a three-year battle, the proposal was finally defeated in 2022.

Neither Luma nor the government in San Juan has actively opposed community microgrid projects, activists say. But they haven’t done much to help, either.

“There isn’t a whole lot of government involvement in rural mountain communities to begin with,” Hermann said. “They’re forgotten about in many ways.

Virtual power plants can take stress off the grid

In addition to keeping homeowners’ power on during a blackout, solar-plus-battery systems that are connected to the grid can send energy back to the network during high-usage periods.

Using connected households or businesses to meet grid needs is commonly referred to as a virtual power plant, or VPP.

Luma is enlisting 6,000 customers for a pilot VPP program expected to launch this fall. When high-demand situations arise, the utility will access battery reserves from the participants, who are credited for the energy they provide.

“This program is being developed to address those days when Luma has a shortfall in energy generation,” said Michael Juarbe, Sunnova’s senior manager for government affairs. “What’s very important to understand is that this is an opt-in program — we’re not forcing anyone to participate, and people can set how much they distribute.”

The technology is there to do a much larger VPP network, Juarbe said, “but we know that you have to take slow steps.”

Should it be successful, Juarbe could see a VPP generating a gigawatt of energy for Puerto Rico.

“We could replace a power plant based on dirty fuels and provide clean energy consistently to the grid,” he said. “In the short term, we’re talking about avoiding outages. But long term, I think virtual power plants are the future.”

Decentralize the power supply

Puerto Rico’s largest power plants are along the southern coast. But the most populous areas, like San Juan, are in the north. Transmission lines that cross remote mountain ranges are vulnerable to hurricane winds and take a long time to repair.

“Our energy paradigm is still a centralized system based on imported fossil fuels,” Rúa-Jovet said. “That’s the opposite of resiliency. If you hit one part, everything goes down.”

The solution, he added, “is to have systems that are widely distributed, with lots of redundancies.”

Solar-plus-storage microgrids “can decouple and operate independently of the main grid during blackouts,” according to a position paper from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy think tank.

“We champion a highly decentralized, bottom-up grid approach that starts with personal microgrids, aggregated microgrids, then community microgrids — all the way to municipal or even larger solar and storage systems,” the group said.

Puerto Rico’s present is the mainland’s future

Puerto Rico has been grappling with an energy crisis for years. But it’s only recently that other parts of the US have realized how fragile their energy grid is.

Experts say the wildfires that devastated Maui this month may have been caused by downed power lines. The historic cold snap in Texas in February 2021 led to a massive multiday power outage and nearly 150 deaths from hypothermia. And in California, extreme heat, drought and wildfires contributed to 39 power outages last year, adding up to more than 414 hours without power.

Hermann from the Monte Azul Foundation said we can’t wait for more disasters to reveal the cracks in our system.

Most of us take for granted that electricity is always going to be there.

“That’s not the reality for Puerto Rico,” Hermann said. “And now it’s materially becoming a reality in climate-vulnerable parts of the United States.”

CNET

Climate Environment News

BCIC launches new hurricane insurance policy

August 2, 2023 jrobinson

BCIC has launched a new hurricane insurance policy just in time for the hurricane season. They have partnered with Yokahu, an insure-tech company from the United Kingdom, to create a new hurricane insurance product for homeowners and renters.

Reinsurers have left the Caribbean reducing the capacity for insurance companies in Jamaica to take on new customers. With this and other recent developments in the property insurance market, homeowners and renters have seen their premiums skyrocket.

BCIC has launched its new product to provide homeowners and renters with affordable and hassle-free insurance all year round, but especially during the hurricane season. This new product is 100 per cent online and will be sold directly to customers through the BCIC website. Customers can purchase it for as little as US$60 and premiums go up to US$750.

The process for payouts is much different from what one typically expects from an insurance company. There is no claims process or need to show proof of damage to receive a payment. Once the strength of a hurricane rises to approximately a category three or above with wind speeds reaching 74 mph, the customer is automatically paid. Payouts for customers begin at US$160 and go as high as US$10,000.

Many homeowners have found that they are unable to buy home insurance because local insurers are not taking new customers. Others have seen the cost of home insurance go up well past their ability to pay. This product is designed to be an affordable policy for those who are unable to get or afford home insurance. It can also act as an add-on to an existing homeowner’s policy or cover for renters who want their belongings protected.

Managing director of BCIC, Peter Levy, is excited for the potential of the product to help Jamaicans feel like they won’t be ‘left out in the cold’, this hurricane season.

“Hurricanes can strike with unimaginable force, leaving behind a trail of destruction and wreaking havoc on homes and properties. Having your home damaged, which for most people is the greatest monetary investment they will make in their lifetime, is very scary. In the event that someone’s home is damaged, the stress of having to deal with that, compounded by the stress of what can sometimes be a lengthy claims process, we think, is too much to place on the shoulders of our customers” he said.

Levy believes that with property insurance becoming increasingly expensive, protection for one’s home or belongings is less accessible. He said this is an inclusive product that helps to ‘cushion the blow’ of premiums in a property insurance market that is out of reach.

“Hurricanes are not an imagined threat in Jamaica. We have decades of evidence showing the consequences of being ill-prepared for hurricane season. Our approach to the market has led us to create a product that is for everyone, and we are proud to be able to have a product that puts the customer first,” said Levy.

Climate

The case for green industrial parks

August 2, 2023 jrobinson

Throughout history, the evolution of energy technologies has influenced the location of production.

At the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, factories were typically located near fast-moving rivers or under windmills because they needed to be near their energy source. The steam engine’s introduction enabled firms to establish their bases anywhere coal could be economically shipped.

Oil, which was even cheaper to transport, further loosened the ties between a firm’s location and its energy source. With the development of electricity, power could be easily distributed across vast areas and used wherever there was an electrical outlet, transforming the structure and layout of manufacturing plants.

So how will the clean-energy transition affect the location and design of future manufacturing? A key feature of most renewable sources is that the energy they produce is very costly to transport beyond the local electricity grid. At present, sunny regions can generate electricity for under US$20 per megawatt hour, which is equivalent to oil priced at US$34 per barrel – less than half the current market price of crude.

By contrast, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, US President Joe Biden’s signature climate-change bill, provides subsidies for companies converting renewable energy into green hydrogen at US$3 per kilogramme of hydrogen, which is equivalent to US$142.2 per barrel of oil – double the current oil price. In other words, storing solar energy in transportable molecules is very expensive. Consequently, it is more efficient to use it where it is produced.

Given these high transportation costs, an effective global decarbonisation process would position energy-intensive industries near cheap sources of green energy. Installing solar panels in sunny areas, and windmills in places with strong and consistent winds, could significantly reduce global demand for land and materials. A recent paper, for example, finds that the steel industry’s future may lie in sunny tropical locations with strong onshore winds and near iron ore deposits.

But energy-intensive industries are currently located far from these ideal spots. To facilitate efficient decarbonisation, it is essential to relocate them. But where? It would take countries several decades to decarbonise their electrical grids, and even countries with abundant renewable resources would find it very costly to decommission their existing fossil-fuel capacity because that investment must be paid for, whether or not the facilities remain operational.

These costs will likely slow down the energy transition in the manufacturing sector. But the process could be accelerated if countries with abundant, cheap clean-energy sources develop green industrial parks. This would offer a viable alternative for industries seeking to reduce their emissions through relocation. These parks would complement measures designed to discourage emissions, such as cap and trade schemes, carbon pricing, and the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. While these policy interventions aim to lower emissions by increasing costs, green industrial parks would provide a more affordable path.

To be sure, as with all regulations, countries and companies might try to game the system by reallocating their existing clean energies to green industrial parks while increasing the share of non-renewable energy elsewhere in the economy, resulting in no net emissions reductions. Given this risk, green industrial parks must meet certain criteria.

First, their establishment must be based on new sources of clean energy, not merely repurposing existing capacity. Second, to prevent non-emission-reducing reallocations, every country must still abide by its previously announced nationally determined contributions under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Third, for the sake of efficiency and stability, it would be useful to connect the new green zones to national electricity grids. But this should be conditional on the zones becoming significant net exporters of clean energy to the grid to ensure that any grey energy they might occasionally use for stability purposes would be offset by the export of clean energy.

Establishing green industrial parks and their clean-energy resources would not necessarily require government funding. Such real estate and energy investments should be profitable and thus privately financed.

But this does not mean that governments should play no role in their establishment. On the contrary, to become competitive, these zones must also strive to compete on the availability of other production inputs, such as human resources, local supply chains, research and development capabilities, logistics, and more.

Governments could accelerate the process by introducing effective green-energy regulations, facilitating right-of-way provisions for transmission lines, adjusting zoning regulations, building arterial infrastructure, and investing in urban development and human resources.

Green industrial parks would facilitate the global relocation of energy-intensive industries, hasten the development of renewable energy in resource-rich regions, and encourage governments to go beyond their individual decarbonisation targets. They would also expedite the global reduction of emissions in manufacturing by making it financially viable to relocate early to regions that can produce cheap green energy. Lastly, they could spare the world millions of tons of solar panels, wind turbines, cables, and batteries by placing these capital goods in locations where, thanks to natural conditions, they can be most productive.

A net-zero world cannot be achieved by relying on efforts by industries in each country to reduce emissions on their own. Current industrial locations reflect our carbon-based energy system and its low transportation costs.

Relocating those activities is crucial to completing the energy transition, and green industrial zones could serve as a practical way of getting it done.

– Ricardo Hausmann, a former minister of planning of Venezuela and former chief economist at the Inter-American Development Bank, is a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Growth Lab.

Gleaner

Alternative Energy Energy Saving Government News

Are European vehicles cheaper now that import duty has been removed?

July 21, 2023 jrobinson

Earlier in January, Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke announced that the Jamaican Government is removing the duty on European vehicles imported into the country.

This action stemmed from the economic partnership agreement (EPA) signed between Jamaica and the European Union (EU) back in 2008. The EPA, a free trade agreement aimed at fostering trade and investment between the two regions, has paved the way for a surge in accessibility and competition within Jamaica’s automotive market.

Specifically, for Chapter 87 goods, which include motor vehicles, duty breakdowns have been established to facilitate imports. For instance, motor vehicles with engine capacities exceeding 1000cc but not exceeding 1500cc, imported by individuals using gasoline, which previously attracted an import duty of 20 per cent now attract a 0 per cent import duty rate under the EPAs, while the General Consumption Tax (GCT) remains at 15 per cent and the Special Consumption Tax on Fuel (SCTA) at 20 per cent.

In the case of electric vehicles imported by individuals, with an electric motor for propulsion and manufactured within the past three years, a preferential import duty rate of 0 per cent is applied. Similarly, the GCT remains at 0 per cent, exempted under the GCT Act, while the SCTA stands at 0.5 per cent.

The Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) has published a guide on the requirements to qualify for duty exemption, which can be found on its website:

The vehicles must be manufactured or made in any of the EU member states or the United Kingdom.
The vehicles must meet the requisite origin criteria.
Vehicles with a date of report prior to January 1, 2023, are not eligible to access preferential rates of 0 per cent under the EPAs.
A valid, original Movement Certificate EUR.1 must be submitted with your import declaration or a declaration given by the exporter on an invoice, a delivery note, or any other commercial document which describes the products concerned in sufficient detail to enable them to be identified.
Vehicles must be directly consigned from the exporting EU/UK member state to Jamaica.

Speaking with Our Today, Lynvalle Hamilton, president of Jamaica Used Car Dealers Association (JUCDA), said, “While there are some dealers who are seeing benefits from the duty changes, not a wide selection of the used car dealers opt to import European vehicles due to the high prices coming out of the UK, the better option for them is usually vehicles coming out of Japan.”

Christina Taylor, group marketing manager at ATL Automotive Group confirmed with Our Today, that ATL has not yet obtained units that benefit from the duty removal.

Taylor was mum, however, as to when these new vehicles would arrive in the country.

While she was unable to reveal specific sales information, she confirmed that among motor vehicles where the removal of duty under the EPA applies, the savings will be passed on to customers.

OUR Today

Climate Climate Change Environment News

Why nighttime heat can be so dangerous – and why it’s getting worse

July 21, 2023 jrobinson

Summers are getting hotter than ever, shattering all-time high temperature records, straining the energy grid and damaging critical infrastructure.

Heat waves also are coming to include another increasingly dangerous element: overnight temperatures that don’t cool down enough to offer sufficient reprieve from oppressive heat, particularly for people without access to air conditioning.

“Most people don’t realize that hot nighttime temperatures have been outpacing daytime temperature increases across most populated regions worldwide in recent decades,” Columbia University’s Data Science Institute postdoctoral research scientist Kelton Minor told CNN.

Hotter nights are a consequence of the climate crisis, scientists have warned. On average, nights are warming faster than days in most of the United States, the 2018 National Climate Assessment found.

“We think it’s because as the days grow warmer, there is more moisture in the air that traps the heat,” the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health’s executive director, Lisa Patel, told CNN. “During the day, that moisture reflects the heat, but at night, it traps the heat in.”

Increasing nighttime heat is even more common in cities because of the urban heat island effect, in which metro areas are significantly hotter than their surroundings.

Places with a lot of asphalt, concrete, buildings and freeways absorb more of the sun’s heat than areas with ample parks, rivers and tree-lined streets. At night, when temperatures are supposed to cool down, the retained heat is released back into the air, said University of Washington climate and health expert Kristie Ebi.

Areas with a lot of green space – with grass and trees that reflect sunlight and create shade – are cooler on summer’s hottest days, she said.

“Many cities put together cooling shelters, but people have to know where they are, how to get to them and what hours they operate,” Ebi told CNN, noting city officials must rethink urban planning to consider climate change.

“It’s going to take a while for trees to grow, but we need tree-planting programs focusing on places that are particularly vulnerable, making sure that city planning takes into account that we’re heading into a much warmer future.”

Nighttime should be when our bodies get a break from the heat, Patel said. But with the climate crisis, it’s becoming less likely to happen. Heat-related deaths could increase sixfold by the end of the century due to warmer nighttime temperatures, unless planet-warming pollution is significantly curbed, a 2022 study in the Lancet Planetary Health found.

The climate crisis is already affecting people’s ability to sleep, said Minor, co-author of a study that found people living in warmer climates lose more sleep for each degree of temperature increase. It was published in May in the journal One Earth.

“We all know what it’s like to try to fall asleep on a hot night – it’s uncomfortable,” Patel said. “We often lose sleep. It is estimated that by the end of the century, we could lose about two days of sleep per year, and it will be worse for people without access to air conditioning.”

At its most extreme, when a human body does not get the chance to recover – typically at night – heat stress can progress to heat stroke, which is associated with confusion, dizziness and passing out, Patel explained.

People around the world are already losing roughly 44 hours of sleep every year on average due to warm nighttime temperatures during just the first part of the 21st century, Minor’s study estimated. He calls this “sleep erosion,” noting each person may lose up to 58 hours of sleep by the end of the century.

“People in our study did not appear to make up for lost sleep on hotter nights by napping during the day or by sleeping more during the days or weeks after,” Minor said. “In fact, they lost additional sleep over these periods due to a delayed temperature effect, possibly due to ambient heat being trapped indoors.”

And much like other social issues, the impacts don’t fall equally across communities, he said.

“For every degree of nighttime temperature rise, we found that the elderly lost over twice as much sleep as middle-aged adults, females lost slightly more sleep than males, and critically, residents of lower-middle-income countries lost three times as much sleep compared to people living in higher income countries,” Minor said.

Heat waves that go on for several days tend to be associated with more deaths as the body can no longer keep itself cool, Patel said.

And unless planet-warming pollution is curbed, the climate crisis is set to increase exposure to dangerous heat index levels by 50% to 100% in much of the tropics and by up to 10 times across much of the globe, according to a 2022 study published in Communications Earth & Environment.

“Living through a heat wave during the day can be like running a race,” Patel said. “We need a cool break to recover and recuperate, and when nighttime temperatures don’t drop, we don’t get that critical time we need to relieve the stress on our bodies from being overheated during the day.”

CNN

Alternative Energy News Renewable Energy Solar Buzz Featured Solar Energy

Century 21 and SolarBuzz Jamaica forge partnership

June 29, 2023 jrobinson

Century 21, a leading real estate company, and SolarBuzz Jamaica, an innovative player in the renewable energy sector, have joined and formed a partnership which was the subject of a signing ceremony earlier today.

With the recent majority stake acquisition of Century 21 by FirstRock, a prominent real estate company, the partnership takes on even greater significance, establishing a robust foundation for an ambitious expansion. This alliance between Century 21 and SolarBuzz Jamaica marks the first of many strategic collaborations as Century 21 paves the way for key industry partnerships.

“Century 21 is thrilled to embark on this transformative journey alongside SolarBuzz Jamaica,” said Jordan Chin, Executive Chairman of Century 21 Heave Ho Properties. “This partnership opens up remarkable opportunities to enhance our services and provide unmatched value to our customers. Together, we will revolutionise the real estate industry and exceed expectations.”

Jason Robinson, CEO of SolarBuzz Jamaica, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “We are delighted to collaborate with Century 21 on this strategic venture. By combining our renewable energy expertise with Century 21’s exceptional real estate services, we can create sustainable and innovative solutions for our customers. This partnership marks a significant milestone in reshaping the industry and driving positive change.”

To solidify their commitment to delivering specialised services to clients and customers, Century 21 and SolarBuzz Jamaica have signed a memorandum of understanding. This agreement not only ensures superior service but also guarantees heightened brand exposure and publicity, bolstering the reach and impact of both companies.

OUR Today

Alternative Energy News Renewable Energy

Renewables need to rise eightfold to hit energy grid target; wind power to take lead

June 29, 2023 jrobinson

Investments in wind and solar power generation need to grow at least eightfold to hit and surpass the target of 50 per cent renewables, new documents from power utility Jamaica Public Service Company show.

“In order to achieve this target, there will be a heavy reliance on solar and wind renewable sources and long duration battery energy storage systems (BESS), assuming a build-out of 60 MW of solar and 60 MW of wind in any one particular year,” said JPS, which is hunting a consultant to assess the cheapest and most effective method of transmitting power across the grid up to year 2041.

Within that 18-year span, the electricity supplier expects the power mix to undergo substantial adjustment.

The power generation network is then expected to have added 870 MW of wind, 510 MW of solar, 34 MW of hydro and 600 MW of storage, according to the JPS document, which referenced parts of the Jamaican government’s Integrated Resource Plan #2, referred to as IRP2.

The existing renewables capacity include 101 MW of wind, 57 MW of solar at the base level, and 28 MW of hydropower. It is expected that some of the existing units will be replaced over time with new units, but the breakdown wasn’t immediately available. JPS did not respond immediately to requests for comment made on Monday.

Under the IRP2, the Jamaican government is pushing for renewables to account for 50 per cent of the power grid by 2030.

JPS said within that initial timeframe, seven years, equal amounts of new solar power units and wind power are targeted for addition to the national electricity grid, which it operates exclusively under licence from the government, but that beyond 2030, it will shift towards a heavier reliance on wind.

Investors in these new power units will largely be sought through public auction, a function that is generally within the remit of the Office of Utilities Regulation, the state regulator of telecoms and electricity utilities.

“As the country moves to a more sustainable future, it is essential that the stability, security and reliability of the network is maintained as variable renewable sources and battery energy sources become a more dominant feature,” JPS said in the tender documents for the consultant.

The issue with renewables remains the fluctuation in power delivered to the grid when compared with conventional fuel sources such as diesel and natural gas, which together power most of Jamaica’s electricity generation units. Renewables are affected by cloud coverage for solar or slow wind speeds that affect the operations of turbines that generate wind power.

Renewable energy currently accounts for 30 per cent of the power mix. Rebalancing the mix to half of the grid capacity aims to safeguard against world market energy price shocks, improve energy security and protect consumers on the grid.

Higher fuel prices have been affecting much of the world since February 2022 when Russia, a large oil-producing nation, invaded its neighbour Ukraine. For instance, fuel imports in the first two months of this year cost Jamaica nearly $48 billion, up from $40 billion in the similar period a year ago, according to official data agency Statistical Institute of Jamaica.

JPS wants the consultant it is hiring to develop and test a plan for the transmission network up to 2041. It should include a review of the existing computer models of generation and transmission expansion, and an analysis of normal and abnormal conditions.

The full IRP2 plan has not yet been made public by the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport.

The portion of the IRP2 referenced by JPS indicates that the energy plan to 2030 involves adding 360 MW of wind, 360 MW of solar, 375 MW of storage, and 34 MW of hydro. Thereafter between 2031 and 2041 the target is an additional 510 MW of wind, 150 MW of solar, 225 MW of storage and no additional hydro.

The document gave no indication of cost of capital to roll out the plan.

Jamaica Public Service owns and operates 22 generating units. Its assets include conventional thermal plants that generate 315 MW, hydro 28 MW; and wind turbines that produce 3.0 MW; as well as 1,200 kilometres of transmission lines supporting over half a million customers. The company is co-owned and controlled by Marubeni Corporation of Japan and Korea East-West Power, with Jamaica as a minority partner.

While JPS has a monopoly on power distribution, the market for power generation remains open to competition. These suppliers, called independent power producers, sell electricity to JPS under power purchase agreements. The IPPs as a bloc produce 537 MW of power from diesel or natural gas, 98 MW of wind, and about 57 MW of solar power.

Within the renewable energy market, the large operators and their capacity include: Wigton Windfarm with a capacity of 67 MW – a former government-owned business that was privatised via the stock market four years ago; BMR Energy at 32 MW, with assets held by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group; the Eight Rivers/Paradise Park solar project at up to 51 MW, and held by Rekamnair, Neoen and MPC Energy; and Content Solar at 20 MW, held by WRB Enterprises.

Gleaner

Alternative Energy Electricity Government News

Letter of the Day | Concerns about nuclear energy direction for Ja

June 9, 2023 jrobinson

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As a young university graduate with a degree in physics and applied physics, I was an ardent advocate of nuclear power in Jamaica. I argued that the use of nuclear power was necessary to generate abundant, cheap energy to allow Jamaica to develop manufacturing industries such as the production of aluminium and other finished goods, providing much-needed jobs and economic growth. At the same time, I dismissed cons such as environmental pollution and safety issues as being irrelevant and of secondary concern.

With advancing years and hopefully a little more wisdom, I have come to realise that we have an obligation to pass our only planet on to our descendants in a condition that is no worse than we found it.

The recent announcements by the prime minister and Minister Vaz that Jamaica is planning to add nuclear power generation in the form of small nuclear reactors to our energy mix, leaves me with grave concerns about the advice they are receiving.

As Dr Dennis Minott has said in several articles in your newspaper, there are a number of issues that need to be carefully considered before making such a decision. Among them are:

1. Although the manufacturers of these plants promise that they will take them back for disposal when they reach the end of their useful life, what guarantee do we have that the company will still be around to fulfil its obligation when the 40-50 year expected lifespan expires?

2. Even if the company is still in business, changes in government regulations in their home country may well bar them from shipping the unit or its disassembled components into their country. The radioactive waste may then find its way into poor third countries in exchange for a pittance paid to corrupt politicians, or simply be dumped into the ocean.

3. Although some nuclear power plants use air cooling, most such plants, including small modular reactors (SMRs), use significant amounts of water for cooling and for the production of steam to generate electricity. This water can be held in either a closed-loop or a ‘once-through’ system. The actual amount of water consumed will vary depending on the technology being used and may fall as the technology improves, but a reasonable estimate for an SMR generating 300 MW will typically range between two to 14 million gallons per day for the primary coolant (used to transfer heat away from the fuel rods), plus an additional eight to 80 million gallons per day for the secondary coolant (used to transfer heat from the primary coolant to the steam-generation system, where the actual electricity is produced). In total, we are looking at anywhere from 10-94 million gallons of water consumed per day, depending on the plant design and whether the system is open or closed-loop.

4. Even more concerning, and a fact that is often glossed over by advocates, is that ALL nuclear reactors produce radioactive coolant (usually water) as a by-product of their operation. By design, coolant comes into contact with the reactor core where the uranium fuel rods are contained. As the fuel undergoes fission, radioactive isotopes are generated, some of which can dissolve or become suspended in the coolant. This radioactive coolant is treated to reduce the radioactivity as much as is possible with current technology, but it is impossible to remove it entirely. The radioactive coolant has to be stored somewhere – usually in some sort of storage pond. In a country that sits on a major fault zone, where a high-magnitude earthquake is a matter of ‘when’ NOT ‘if’, a pond full of radioactive water/coolant represents a potential environmental disaster. If you have doubts about this, consider the repeated discharge of polluted industrial effluent into the Rio Cobre.

METHODS OF DISPOSAL

5. Returning to the issue of disposing of the nuclear plant at the end of its useful life, the most common methods are: a) decommissioning and dismantling, b) entombment (encasing it in an element such as lead), and c) deep geological repository (disposing of the radioactive components by dumping them in a salt formation or deep rock formation). Given Jamaica’s small land area and widespread porous limestone geology, options b) and c) are impractical, which leaves us with option a) which involves removing all radioactive materials, decontaminating the site, and demolishing the facility. The radioactive waste generated during this process is packaged and stored in specialised containers for long-term storage or disposal. It is obvious that to minimise transmission costs and losses, the SMR location can’t be too remote from where the power is to be used, which means that in reality, this demolished, still-radioactive site will be left sitting within a few miles of major industrial and/or residential centres. It is important to note that EVERY gram of radioactive waste generated since the first nuclear power plant was built in 1954, is still sitting somewhere out there emitting radiation!

We should ask ourselves why, prior to the Ukraine-Russia war, many European and Asian countries were planning to mothball their very expensive nuclear power plants long before they had become obsolete.

Assuming that we find a suitable location and an adequate water supply and that the plant does become a reality, I very much doubt that future generations will thank us for the legacy we plan to leave for them.

Gleaner

Alternative Energy Electricity Government News

Risk factors of nuclear energy

June 9, 2023 jrobinson

MINOTT… we are not doing a good job at dealing with waste at all, let alone with nuclear waste which is thousands and millions of times more dangerous.

EXPONENTIAL start-up costs, qualified employees, proper waste disposal and site selection are being cited as factors for Jamaica’s shortfall to be able to successfully establish a nuclear energy facility on the island.

The concerns were raised by Dr Dennis Minott, a scientist trained in applied nuclear physics, with a PhD in physics and undergraduate training in engineering, who has described announcements by the Government to introduce nuclear energy in the renewable energy mix as delusive.

“The cost of small nuclei is running at about US$8 million per megawatt. Just the capital cost. And for Jamaica, if we were even to have a 10-megawatt plant let alone a 100-megawatt plant that would be US$800 million of installation cost, let alone the cost of personnel, the cost of infrastructure, the need for clear space and the need to be extremely military,” Dr Minott revealed to the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

In a recent sectoral debate presentation in Parliament, Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Daryl Vaz said if Jamaica does not join the rest of the world in pursuit of building its own nuclear energy capabilities, the country will be left behind. However, the renewable energy specialist says several things need to be in place before such a move could even be considered, and Jamaica’s economic position already put it at a disadvantage.

He explained that for such transformation to take place, a rigorous evaluation of what the aim is will be needed. For a nuclear plant to operate effectively, he says the trained human capital is paramount and it would require to have on stream, all the time, one or two nuclear physicists available 24/7 and these trained employees will need to be properly compensated.

“It cost CAN$251,000, US$190,000 (plus) per annum to even get a low-grade physicist to work full time at the boring, but important job of supervising a nuclear power reactor. Then you need engineers, they come in at roughly the same costs, then you have got to have operators, they come in at about US$90,000 plus per annum,” added Dr Minott.

He reiterated that the country has no experienced civilian engineers, physicists, operators or fire personnel in dealing with nuclear energy. For the most part, the human capital that is available and is knowledgeable about some nuclear science and technology resides at the University of the West Indies, Mona, in the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS). But, ICENS only operates a small nuclear reactor, which is slow and small-scale and Dr Minott says it is a misrepresentation of what a nuclear facility is.

“It [ICENS] has nothing to do with this [nuclear energy] at all. It is blatantly untrue to say that we’ve had 40 years of experience with nuclear power, we have not, and we have no experience whatsoever. We may have one or two people trained in nuclear power like myself, but nobody based on anything in Jamaica has been trained in Jamaica to handle nuclear matters,” he said.

But even with trained members operating in a nuclear facility, proper disposal of nuclear waste is another concern.

“We are not doing a good job at dealing with waste at all, let alone with nuclear waste which is thousands and millions of times more dangerous,” he said discerningly.

In pointing to the country’s already troubled disposal practices, including from medical waste which has been piling up, Dr Minott said those waste could possibly include radionuclides from nuclear medicine practice. He believes if medical waste is not being disposed of properly now, the same will follow suit with nuclear waste.

“Have no doubt that the medical doctors who must have administered those nuclear medicines knew that these were extremely hazardous materials but they are out there because whoever is disposing of them is not incinerating them,” said Dr Minott with serious concern.

He says that medical nuclear waste is likely to stay radioactive for three or four months, while nuclear waste has far longer-lasting radioactivity. He explained that even if nuclear waste is disposed of in deep salt mines some 500 to 600 metres or more below the earth’s surface or in mountains, they are still radiating. As such, it’s just a matter of putting them out of direct reach from people, and he’s of the view that it’s highly unlikely nuclear waste generated in Jamaica will be dumped elsewhere.

He, however, admitted that it is possible to minimise the risks against alpha particles, and beta particles because they can be contained. But gamma radiation, which is electromagnetic radiation, cannot be contained effectively without adequate shielding and less frequent exposure.

“Workers cannot be continuously going five days a week or seven days a week, spending five hours per day, on a reactor, and not come away hurt, and I’m not talking about nuclear accidents, I’m just talking about normal operations,” he said.

He added that the narrative or assumption that Jamaica has an insufficiency of power is false and a false solution is being pushed. He says the issue of grid stability is not only dependent on the availability of power.

“Jamaica doesn’t have an ideal grid but it’s not unstable. JPS doesn’t necessarily run an unstable utility. The problem is we have failed to invest in infrastructure, the distribution lines as well as the big transmissions lines. We have failed to invest in the kinds of consumption devices that we ought to, and not just invest, we do not maintain them as well as we should. We do a bad job at it,” said Dr Minott.

He further added that if Jamaica were to get and concentrate on getting power properly connected to the electricity grid, then it would have stability because the instability that Jamaica endures is not caused by lack of power.

If all these were to be in place, though an advantage to pursue the creation of its own nuclear facility, Dr Minott reminded of Jamaica’s geographical position on the tectonic plates which poses a major risk of a nuclear accident due to earthquakes.

“Even an earthquake that is near the Jamaican soil, let alone one that hits and moves two tectonic plates in the way we know they can shake and I don’t know of any nuclear plant that’s built to withstand that,” he added.

And based on Jamaica’s small size, he says it’s a terrible idea to build a nuclear plant in Jamaica, explaining that large reactors are only appropriate for places with enough space. The Business Observer asked Dr Minott, should a nuclear facility be built in Jamaica, where would be a good location? His response was “The part of Jamaica that fits on Antarctica.”

Jamaica Observer

Alternative Energy Energy Saving Renewable Energy Solar Energy Solar Pannels

The Top 3 Things to Look for in Solar Panels

June 7, 2023 Webmaster

It’s no secret, there are a lot of solar panels on the market. Many promise different results from lower prices to better aesthetics. But what factors should you weigh when evaluating which solar provider to choose? It all comes down to these 3 things – efficiency, durability and warranty.

Efficiency

SunPower® solar panels are widely known to be the most efficient on the market*. That’s because SunPower solar cells are unobstructed by metal gridlines across the top, unlike most conventional solar cells. That means that there is plenty of open space for each solar cell’s unique light-trapping surface to absorb more than just visible light rays such as ultraviolet and infrared light.

SunPower also uses intra-digitated back contact technology, meaning all of the wires that carry the electricity from each cell in the solar panel are placed onto the back. This eliminates shading and helps SunPower solar panels generate more energy, even when the weather isn’t ideal. SunPower’s technology and strategic design give its solar panels the ability to harvest more sunlight than conventional solar panels.

Durability

In addition to their design for efficiency, SunPower solar panels were also created with durability in mind. SunPower solar cells have a strong copper backing that is resistant to corrosion and weathering. This is incredibly important because solar panels sit on rooftops and are subject to harsh temperature and weather changes. Exposure to the elements causes all solar panels to degrade over time. But the rate of degradation can vary heavily from one solar panel provider to another. For a conventional solar panel, this reduction of power output happens at an average rate of 0.5% each year. But a SunPower solar panel degrades much more slowly at only 0.25% each year. That’s a big difference and illustrates just how durable SunPower solar panels are.

Warranty

Not all warranties are created equal. To find the real value behind a warranty, homeowners should look past just the years a solar system is covered. Some solar companies have warranties that only cover the materials but not the loss of power production. Or, they source parts from different manufacturers, leaving you with multiple warranties to sort through. SunPower offers the most comprehensive warranty in the industry, with coverage spanning both power and product. In addition, SunPower is the only company that stands behind the entire solar system, not just the panels. In the rare likelihood that something does go wrong, you only need to contact one company to fix the issue – SunPower.

But SunPower doesn’t just stop at the product. We also guarantee that your panels won’t lose more than 8% of their original DC power output in 25 years. When compared to conventional solar providers that only guarantee 19%, there’s a clear winner.

When deciding which solar panels are right for your home, do yourself a favor and evaluate which option delivers the most overall value. Chances are, you’ll land on SunPower as the obvious choice.

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