Solar-powered relief

@mccpeace After the devastating wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017, MCC continues relief work in Puerto Rico - now supporting solar projects that provide energy security to Puerto Rican families who are vulnerable to disaster because of disabilities or other realities. @Casa Pueblo #solarpower #solar #puertorico ♬ Latin guitar/Western music/Video/Light/Commercial(1408961) - SUNNY HOOD STUDIO

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) East Coast staff in Puerto Rico provided timely and essential relief in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Maria in 2017. MCC canned beef and chicken, grocery boxes, bottled water, hygiene kits and other essential supplies were quickly distributed throughout 40% of the island, even amid heavy rains on narrow mountain roads.

MCC continues relief work in Puerto Rico - now supporting solar projects that provide energy security to Puerto Rican families who are vulnerable to disaster because of disabilities or other realities.

Through a collaborative project with Adjuntas-based nonprofit organization Casa Pueblo, called Cucubano, or firefly, MCC brings solar-powered relief to families in rural Puerto Rico.

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For people with disabilities, electricity is essential

Liduvina Plaza Bernard and her daughter Sandra Santiago Plaza are members of one of the families in the town of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico that have participated in the Cucubano project.

Eighteen years ago, Plaza Bernard suffered a stroke that left the right side of her body completely paralyzed. Her mobility is very limited, and she is unable to express herself verbally with full sentences. Since her stroke, her family takes care of her needs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, her condition, Plaza Bernard has strong Christian faith. She prays regularly and is surrounded by care and support of her family, doctor and church that keeps her spiritually fed.

Yet Plaza Bernard’s physical, mental and emotional well-being is dependent on the constant presence of a few essential items: her adjustable bed, her television and her air conditioning unit. She also has medicines that must be kept cold in the family’s refrigerator. The adjustable bed and air conditioner in her room help prevent ulcers on her body. The television helps keep her connected to what’s going on in the world. All of these essentials, however, require electricity.

Santiago Plaza serves as Plaza Bernard’s primary caregiver. She says, “If the power goes out, she thinks that something is going to happen to her and she can’t put her bed up and down, and she gets desperate. That’s what her life is – the [remote] control, the bed and the TV. Without that, she wants to die.” 

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Pains caused by Puerto Rico's power grid

Puerto Rico’s power grid is fragile and underinvested. The grid’s operation was privatized in 2021, a supposed solution to many of the grid’s problems and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s $9 billion public debt. As a consequence of mismanagement, budget constraints and deferred maintenance, 3.2 million Puerto Rican residents experience chronic power outages. At the same time, people have to deal with increasingly frequent heat waves and storms, occasional earthquakes and underinvestment in infrastructure.

Jean Carlos Arce serves as Puerto Rico program coordinator for MCC East Coast in the capital, San Juan. He says, “We see energy price hikes over and over again, with no improvements to service. The people ultimately pay the costs.”

According to NBC, consumers on the island saw seven electric rate increases last year. Puerto Rican power customers already pay about twice as much as U.S. customers.

When Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico as a category 4 storm in 2017, the government reported 64 people had died because of the hurricane. But in reality, over 4,000 people died in the 90 days after the storm made landfall. Most people died not because of the wind and rains, but because for months afterward there was no power, no clean water and no functioning health system.

While many communities in Puerto Rico are still recovering from Maria’s devastation, climate change is driving hurricanes to become more frequent and more intense. The already-fragile power grid is increasingly vulnerable to blackouts. Many people with disabilities rely on electricity for their respirators, dialysis or other essential medical needs. Many need to keep lifesaving drugs, like insulin, cold for the medicine to remain effective.

Arce emphasizes, “We all have a human right to have secure energy for our basic needs. Especially for those who are disabled. Our Christian call is to ensure that those who are most vulnerable have what they need.”

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Casa Pueblo fights for energy security and better options

Casa Pueblo is a community organization that emphasizes autogestion, which roughly translates to self-governance. Based in Adjuntas, a town in the mountainous central region of the island, they were established in 1980 in protest of open pit mining that the U.S. government proposed for their town and the surrounding areas of Utuado and Jayuya. They won the fight and created a protected forest.

In recent years, their attention has turned to creating a Pueblo Solar, or a “solar town,” where businesses and homes in Adjuntas are linked in a microgrid of solar panels that creates energy independence and security for the community. 

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MCC and Casa Pueblo partner to help vulnerable Puerto Ricans

MCC and Casa Pueblo’s Cucubano collaborative project started in 2023. Casa Pueblo staff identify medically vulnerable families and work with a small, locally owned solar company, Sol de la Montaña, to install small alternating-current (AC) solar energy systems on the family’s roof. A three-year, $48,000 grant from MCC East Coast will see seven families equipped with secure energy by 2026.

Alexis Massol Deya, co-founder of Casa Pueblo, says, “This is a very important project because it involves the most vulnerable people in our community – people that have problems with their health and older adults. It’s one of the most beautiful projects that Casa Pueblo has.”

Rebecca Rodríguez Banch, community liaison for Casa Pueblo who manages the Cucubano project and selects project participants, says, “We’re able to give that energy security, no matter to whom, or how, or how they live. We don’t ask for anything from the family, we just see the need for it.”

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From centuries of Spanish colonial rule to becoming a U.S. territory in 1898, colonial policies affect the economic, physical and social well-being of families in Puerto Rico. Through their solar initiatives, which they call a “solar insurrection,” Casa Pueblo constructs an alternative community model to the colonial system in Puerto Rico.

Massol Deya reflects on the devastating human toll in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. He says, “All of that was a product of an inefficient colonial government. And that’s why Casa Pueblo began this solar revolution.”

Casa Pueblo shares MCC’s vision of relief and compassion for families in Puerto Rico. Massol Deya says, “We want equality, and we want love and justice to govern us. We continue working because this creates options for a better world.”

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Providing quality of life

On a bright day in May, six workers from Sol de la Montaña installed 12 solar panels (320 watts each) on the roof of the family’s home, along with inverters and two batteries. The system provides just enough energy for lights, a refrigerator, a fan and the bed, TV and air conditioning unit in Plaza Bernard’s room.

Manuel Soto is the owner of Sol de la Montaña and has worked with Casa Pueblo on many of their local projects. He is proud to be part of the project and recognizes the impact that the solar system will have on Plaza Bernard’s health. He says, “The [bed] has to be in motion every so often so that she can have circulation, and that adds to her quality of life.”

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The new solar panels and batteries will supply a more consistent source of energy that the grid on its own cannot provide. Santiago Plaza says, “I am extremely grateful, not so much for us but for her, because the quality of life that she is going to have is going to be much better. If the power goes out, she is not going to lack her bed, her television, [or] her air, which are the main factors for her daily life.”

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Preparing for the next hurricane

The family has lived on the same piece of land in Adjuntas for decades. In recent years they’ve weathered hurricanes, earthquakes and a global pandemic. They lost everything after Hurricane Maria in 2017 and spent weeks camping on their lawn during the early 2020 earthquakes. With Plaza Bernard’s health conditions, plus the threat of increasingly frequent and intense hurricanes, they’re nervous about the next big storm.

Santiago Plaza says, “I can tell you, this [hurricane] season is coming, and for me, it’s terrible.” Her aunt lives in a cement house nearby, so the entire family often moves into her house for safety for as long as necessary. Moving her mother is especially difficult since she’s bedridden and prone to anxiety and other health conditions. Santiago Plaza says, “I’m already preparing myself…so that when it happens we have everything at hand and we do not lack anything.”

The panels are installed sturdily enough to withstand some wind and rain when the next hurricane comes. The biggest threat to the panels, which are the most inexpensive part of the system, is debris and projectiles. During a heavy hurricane, the family can ask Sol de la Montaña to temporarily dismantle the rooftop solar equipment. They can stow the panels in a safe place during the storm, and then have them re-installed as soon as the rain and wind move on. The family will not have to wait for power to return from the grid, which can take weeks or months to return.

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Solar energy covers immediate health needs and eases economic challenges

With solar energy, not only are Plaza Bernard’s immediate health needs covered, but the system will also dramatically lower the family’s energy bills and improve their economic situation.

Santiago Plaza says, “I’m infinitely grateful. With this project, [my mother] is going to be more satisfied and happier now. She’s going to know that if the power goes out, at least her bed will go up and down and her television will not be missing.”

Plaza Bernard had a cheerful demeanor on the day that her family’s solar panel installation was completed. While she couldn’t express herself in full sentences, she understood the positive impact that the solar panels and batteries will have on her life. Visitors to her room, which included family members and guests from Sol de la Montaña, MCC and Casa Pueblo, were greeted with a quiet smile and a wave upon entry, and then bid farewell with kisses blown across the room.

The solar panels, inverter and batteries ease the challenges of Plaza Bernard’s physical, mental and emotional health and support the well-being of her family. Like the flash of a cucubano, one by one, MCC East Coast and Casa Pueblo bring energy security and relief to families in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.

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Banner photo caption: MCC staff, Casa Pueblo staff, Sol de la Montaña staff and the Plaza Bernard family gather for a photo with the newly installed solar system on the roof of the family’s home in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico in May 2024. (MCC photo/Yujin Kim)