Illustration generated with AI: Community members in rural Puerto Rico work to restore rooftop solar and battery systems as outages threaten medical equipment and refrigerated medicine.
(Art direction by Jillian Melero / Connect Puerto Rico; image generated with DALL·E)
Puerto Rico's energy story for April-May is about promises made, delayed, and broken.
Forty-six members of Congress demanded answers from the Energy Department on $715 million redirected away from Puerto Rico solar programs. The deadline was April 30. No response came, Connecticut Public Radio reports.
Nearly 200 organizations sent their own letter demanding the program be restored for 12,000 families who were approved, waited, and were cut off before receiving systems. The Associated Press reports the DOE says some will still get systems, but hasn't said who or when.
The federal government also renewed emergency orders keeping legacy power plants running through August 9. DOE's own records show that as of last October, only 82 miles of transmission lines had been cleared of vegetation since July, falling far short of targets.
There is one piece of good news: the virtual power plant that residents built themselves is expanding ahead of summer peak demand, Energy-Storage.News reports.
In our Energy Workforce Watch, construction and commissioning roles are replacing planning roles across every major contractor on the grid. It’s a signal that the rebuild is moving from paper into the ground.
Hurricane season starts June 1. Here's what you need to know
Congress Wants Answers on $715M Pulled From Puerto Rico Solar Programs
Forty-six members of Congress sent a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright demanding answers on $715 million redirected away from Puerto Rico solar programs. The deadline was April 30. No response came. (Connecticut Public Radio)
📰What Happened
After Hurricanes Maria and Fiona, Congress set aside $1 billion specifically to put rooftop solar panels and battery backup systems on the homes of low-income, elderly, and medically vulnerable Puerto Ricans. These were people who couldn’t afford their own systems and had the most to lose when the lights went out.
Starting in January 2026, the Trump administration began pulling that money. About $369 million was redirected to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) — Puerto Rico’s government-owned electric utility, currently in bankruptcy — for centralized grid repairs.
In total, $715 million was redirected away from the distributed solar programs Congress had designated for households, Connecticut Public Radio reports. Only 6,000 of the planned 40,000 systems were installed before the program ended, Grist reports.
💡Why it Matters
DOE says redirecting the money to PREPA will reach more Puerto Ricans faster. But Congress has sent PREPA more than $17 billion since Hurricane Maria in 2017. The utility has spent less than $100 million of it, completing fewer than 20 projects in nearly a decade. (Grist)
Puerto Rico still has the worst outage rates in the country. Residents lose power an average of 27 hours a year, not counting hurricane recovery periods.
🔎What to Watch
Whether the DOE responds to Congress before hurricane season, and what accountability looks like if it doesn’t
How and when PREPA deploys the redirected funds, and whether it can execute at scale
Whether the governor’s public posture shifts as community and political pressure builds
Rachel Iacovone reports on Puerto Rico and Latino communities for Connecticut Public Radio.
Naveena Sadasivam is a senior staff writer at Grist covering energy, environment, and climate.
