Page 60 - Green Builder Magazine Jan-Feb 2018 Issue

Resilient Rebuilding

After disaster, is it enough to restore the same old grid,

or do we need something more?

BY MARTIN O’MALLEY What is resilience, really?
Americans know a thing or two about resilience.
REALITY CHECK: Last fall, two of the Resilience means more than just picking yourself and your
neighbor up off of the mat. It means adapting and changing in
largest hurricanes in recorded history hit light of new realities. We rebuilt our cities differently—stronger,
Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and better, more resilient—after the great fires that destroyed Chicago
and Baltimore in the early 1900s. We learned to farm and irrigate
other Caribbean islands within 10 days our land differently after the dust bowls that devastated America’s

of each other. The cause is undeniable; heartland in the late 1920s.
Today, we must learn from the mega-hurricane disasters brought
the devastation almost indescribable. about by our global warming.
This means changing the way we feed our people, fuel our
The opportunity to rebuild a green, economies and heal our planet as we face the realities of climate
renewable, more resilient electric grid change. For example, it means rebuilding an electric grid in Puerto
Rico that will be, at once, more renewable and more resilient.
has never been called for more urgently. What if we were to rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric grid to make it
BOTH 100 percent renewable and far more resilient to the mega-
HE CAUSE IS that we pump way too much hurricanes of our foreseeable future? And what if that new 21st-
carbon into the atmosphere. And the carbon century power system was less expensive to operate and provided
we pump into the atmosphere is heating up the lower costs for customers?
Earth. The solution is to redesign our living so Consider these facts:
we are drawing down more carbon every day out 1. At 23 cents per kWh, the price paid by Puerto Ricans today
of the atmosphere than we are pumping into it. for electricity is twice what is paid for electricity on the mainland
Migrating from fossil fuels to renewable of the United States.
T energy sources is a big part of the solution. 2. Renewable energy resources are abundant in Puerto Rico. Solar
And rebuilding a nation’s devastated electric grid is the doorway resources across the Caribbean are greater than in Hawaii, California,
to how we get there. Texas and Spain; wind resources are competitive with resources in the
Hang with me here. leading wind states of Texas and California. And today, those kilowatts
The humanitarian crisis unfolding among our American neighbors of on-shore wind can be produced competitively at 6 cents to 9 cents
in Puerto Rico will require a higher level of engagement and per kWh, while solar can be produced at 10 cents to 13 cents per kWh.
investment than FEMA is currently putting forth. Our fellow citizens 3. The cost of wind, solar and energy storage has been declining
there are still facing critical safety, survival and security concerns dramatically as battery storage technology continues to improve.
throughout the island. But until the hurricanes wiped out our fellow citizens in Puerto
Clearly, a lagging relief effort is our most immediate concern. Rico, all we read about was Puerto Rico’s debt. Less publicized is
But how—as a compassionate and thinking people—do we the fact that $8 billion of Puerto Rico’s $74 billion of indebtedness
prevent this from being an annual humanitarian crisis? actually derives from PREPA—the government-run utility.
Is it enough to rebuild the same old grid, or is something more
required? Power imperfect
To get the right answers, we must ask the right questions. And The truth is America’s largest territory is electrified by a dirty,
those questions have to do with how we rebuild. expensive, rickety and terribly inefficient power system. A power

58 GREEN BUILDER January/February 2018 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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