U.S. Division of Power: $13 Million to Join Extra Puerto Rico Communities with Residential Photo voltaic & Battery Storage

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Funding Will Help Direct Outreach Efforts to Join As much as 40,000 Weak Households with Photo voltaic Panels; A part of a $1 Billion Dedication to Enhance Resilience for Puerto Rican Households

WASHINGTON, D.C.— The U.S. Division of Power (DOE) just lately introduced a slate of group teams and nonprofits chosen to obtain as much as $13.85 million to assist susceptible households in Puerto Rico acquire residential photo voltaic and battery storage installations and supply residents with schooling and client safety companies. Funded by way of the Puerto Rico Power Resilience Fund (PR-ERF), this announcement will help DOE’s efforts to deploy photo voltaic and battery storage techniques on as much as 40,000 single-family households in Puerto Rico. The PR-ERF will finally enhance susceptible households’ power resilience, obtain President Biden’s purpose of reducing power prices for all Individuals, in addition to assist Puerto Rico obtain its purpose of 100% renewable power by 2050.

“For Puerto Rico’s most susceptible residents, an influence outage is usually a matter of life or dying,” stated U.S. Secretary of Power Jennifer M. Granholm. “The success of the Puerto Rico Power Resilience Fund relies on group belief and engagement, and our DOE group is worked up to work with a dedicated community of native organizations that know the vital wants of their neighbors finest.”

DOE anticipates outreach to eligible households will start in early 2024, and the primary installations to start in Spring 2024.

This announcement marks the second spherical of picks from the 2023 PR-ERF Funding Alternative Announcement, which Secretary Granholm introduced in Puerto Rico in July 2023.

Nonprofits Chosen for Training, Coaching, and Client Safety Efforts 

To assist guarantee these susceptible households can finest use their photo voltaic and battery techniques in addition to entry their client rights in Puerto Rico, DOE is asserting the number of two certified organizations — Hispanic Federation Inc. and the Institute for Constructing Know-how and Security — to guide schooling, coaching, and client safety initiatives. Pending profitable negotiations, these two organizations are slated to obtain as much as $10 million whole from the PR-ERF Funding Alternative Announcement.

Photo voltaic Ambassador Prize 

DOE additionally introduced 16 group organizations in Puerto Rico as selectees for the PR-ERF’s $3.85 million Photo voltaic Ambassador Prize. Photo voltaic Ambassadors will help the Division in figuring out, partaking, and helping with consumption processing of qualifying households for photo voltaic panel and battery storage installations. The total checklist of chosen Photo voltaic Ambassadors is on the market on the Grid Deployment Workplace web site.

The Puerto Rico Power Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) 

In December 2022, President Biden signed the Fiscal Yr 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act into regulation, which included $1 billion to determine the PR-ERF to boost power resilience for Puerto Rico’s most susceptible households and communities and assist the Commonwealth meet its purpose of 100% renewable power by 2050. The event of the PR-ERF has relied closely on native collaboration and suggestions, together with Secretary Granholm’s direct engagement with residents and stakeholders within the area by way of strategic conferences, townhalls, and group listening periods.

The primary tranche of PR-ERF funding prioritizes very low-income, single-family households which might be both:

• Situated in areas which have a excessive proportion of very low-income households and expertise frequent and extended energy outages; or
• Embrace a resident with an energy-dependent incapacity, similar to an electrical wheelchair person or particular person who makes use of at-home dialysis machines.

Be taught extra in regards to the Grid Deployment Workplace.

Courtesy of the U.S. DOE.