Juan Rosario: This is a moment in which we know there is going to be a paradigm shift.
Science right now is on our side.
Efraín O’neil-Carrillo: The centralized large power plants that Puerto Rico has, did not suffer really much damage.
So, it wasn't a problem of generating the power, it was a matter of transporting that
power from the places where it is generated in the large power plants to the places that
people needed it.
O’neil-Carrillo: The impact on the transmission system was so large that basically the blackout
lasted for so long, months.
Maria really proved that the centralized hierarchical model that has dominated the electric utility
industry in Puerto Rico for almost 80 years is insufficient to really deal with the impact
hurricanes can have on the island.
O’neil-Carrillo: There's a lesson there.
We need to look at more local resources.
O’neil-Carrillo: A microgrid is a geographical area where you have enough electric energy
resources so that that area can operate by itself, disconnected from the utility or from
other systems.
It's also a social approach to deal with the energy challenges in the island collaborating
with the grid.
Part of your energy would come from the utility but part of your energy would also come from
your local resources.
If the grid is not there because of a storm or whatever you can still operate as if you
were a microgrid.
Arturo Massol-Deya: Casa Pueblo is a community-based organization up in the mountains.
In 1999, Casa Pueblo decided to break the energy dependency and since then, we have
been running on solar power.
We were able to open the house the day after the hurricane.
People were coming here to use our installations as an energy oasis to recharge their equipment,
to connect their respiratory equipment, and immediately we were able to deploy a community relief effort.
This is our power plant.
No air emissions.
No pollution.
We're using solar power to generate electricity.
O’neil-Carrillo: That solar panel is made of a special material or materials that basically
take the energy from the light of the sun and makes material within that solar panel
create that electricity flow.
Massol-Deya: 100 percent of the energy at this point is coming from solar power.
Some energy's going back to the batteries but the batteries are already full.
We want to export that excess energy to the, to our neighbors.
So that's the future.
Rosario: When we came here, we realized that this was a paramount moment in the history
of our country.
Technology is going to change it.
But people are going to drive that technology.
This is one of the places we came at the very beginning, one month after to Maria, to Jayuya.
The community started organizing and began talking about the kind of system they wanted
to deploy in their own communities.
So there were some donations, small systems that people at the beginning they were afraid
of doing it by themselves.
By the second week, the people were installing systems by themselves.
Rosario: We are not talking now about building microgrids from zero, we are talking about
how can we start deploying very small systems that will be used in emergencies.
And from that microgrids from the community.
O’neil-Carrillo: Maximizing our local energy resources, the sun, the wind, the ocean, when
technology is available, but also us, the main player here, the main component is the people.
Rosario: The electrical system of the country is going to build from the ground up, it’s
going to be built but the grassroots is going to be built by their own people beat by beat.
In the century of climate change, renewable, distributed energy is the kind of technology
can that can let to people own their energy.
Massol-Deya: We have to move away from centralized power generation.
We are generating electricity at the point of consumption.
And that's what we called resiliency.