The design for a community microgrid project that is forming in Warner, New Hampshire, seems rather prosaic at first glance. It is simple, with a few buildings, some solar panels, batteries, inverters, and all the regular gear. It seems an appropriately small start for a town with only 444 people in its center and a total population well below 3,000.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has been much in the news since it released its report Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017. Article after article has told us that it said we could see the costs of renewable energy drop to meet those of fossil fuels by 2020.
We have seen the fall of coal. The Dow Jones Coal Index, which stood at over 723 at its high in 2008, was down over 94% to 41.36 on December 8. Just as telling, all of the companies that were its components in 2008 have disappeared. There is now only one company in the index, and it is new, cobbled together out of the wreckage of those that once were.
Off the east coast of Puerto Rico, there are two island municipalities. One, Isla de Vieques, has an area of about 134 square miles and a population of 8,825. The other island is Isla Culebra, which has an area of 11 square miles and a population of just under 1,800. Both islands were hit badly by Hurricane Maria, and now both have been given substantial aid by Tesla.
Puerto Rico has been devastated.
Yesterday, I spent about an hour watching a video that was taken from the dashboard of a car driving through the Puerto Rican countryside. My friend Joseph Mangum had driven for miles through the mountains, over roads with piles of wreckage on the sides that seemed endless. Beyond the wreckage was a countryside populated by trees that had been stripped bare.
Joseph has installed all five PV systems, though not always as he had planned. He has also distributed food, water purification systems, and seeds. He started in the San Juan area, in a place called San José. The first of the 1-kilowatt (kW) systems was installed in a bicycle shop. Local people can gather there and get hit by a breeze from a fan as they charge their cell phones.
… And What it Might Have Missed …
Lazard has produced its latest analysis of energy production costs in Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis – Version 11.0. Lazard is one of a small group of organizations whose incomes are dependent on customers who are investors and need the most accurate information possible. If Lazard makes a statement that is widely off the mark, it means that investors will not make the money they feel they should, and in fact they may even lose money. So Lazard has a powerful vested interest in being right. This is what makes its Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) information so important.
Joseph has used the first $5,000 raised by the campaign to build five solar systems, each complete with inverter, battery, and charge controller. And he has taken those systems to Puerto Rico to set them up himself.
Puerto Rico, as most of us know, was hit by two hurricanes in as many weeks. Irma and Maria made a mess of the island, and it will take months to get things back to normal. When the island does get its electric system back to normal, however, it will not be as things were. It will be new, and hopefully better.
I should start this off with a disclosure. I know Joseph Mangum personally. However, I am not profiting in any way from this message, aside from the feeling I get from being able to spread it here. I can say I believe that Joseph’s message is true, precisely as he presents it.
