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Can Puerto Rico Achieve its Solar Energy Goals?
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi announced new solar energy initiatives in an annual state of the territory address. // File Photo: @GovPierluisi via Twitter.
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi announced new solar energy initiatives on March 28 in an annual state of the territory address, pledging that the island will ramp up renewable energy from a current 3 percent to 40 percent by the end of 2025, and to 60 percent by 2040. Pierluisi also announced that the federal government would provide $100 million for a program to help middle-class families to finance some of the cost of installing battery-backed solar systems. The governor’s speech came amid falling popular support and frustration over rising energy bills, regular blackouts, government corruption and slow reconstruction following hurricanes. How realistic are the renewable energy targets Pierluisi outlined, and will the funding be enough? Is Pierluisi taking adequate steps to address the island’s faltering energy grid?
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Juan Zaragoza Gómez, Puerto Rico at-large senator and chairman of the Budget, Finance, Federal Relations and Fiscal Oversight Board Committee: “Puerto Rico’s energy policy includes an ambitious renewable portfolio standard (RPS). By December 2022, Puerto Rico was supposed to achieve a 20 percent renewable energy goal. By 2025, the RPS includes a mandate of 40 percent of renewable power. Pierluisi’s party, the New Progressive Party, has been in power since 2017. During the past five years, Pierluisi and his party have failed to make sure that we meet our RPS. Integration of renewable power is currently at a mere 3 to 4 percent. Lack of leadership from Pierluisi and his party caused Puerto Rico’s failure to comply with its own renewable energy mandates. Pierluisi’s government has more federal funds to attend to the energy crisis than any other government in our history. However, …”
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A sister publication of the Inter-American Dialogue’s daily Latin America Advisor, the weekly Energy Advisor captures fresh analysis from business leaders and government officials on the most important developments in oil and gas, biofuels, the power sector, renewables, new technologies, and the policy debates shaping the future of energy in the Western Hemisphere and beyond. To subscribe or for more information, contact Gene Kuleta, editor of the Advisor, at gkuleta@thedialogue.org.
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