According to a recent report from Reuters, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Trump administration has announced a redirection of $365 million in federal funds originally allocated for rooftop solar development in Puerto Rico. The funding, awarded during the Biden administration in late 2024, was intended for solar and battery storage projects not scheduled to begin construction until 2026. That money will now be used for immediate power infrastructure needs centered on fossil fuel-based generation.
Puerto Rico’s electrical grid has long struggled under the weight of systemic issues, including bankruptcy of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority in 2017, hurricane damage, and aging infrastructure. These vulnerabilities have manifested in frequent blackouts, including one last month that left 134,000 customers without power.
In response to ongoing electricity shortfalls, Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued an emergency order directing the state-owned utility to utilize oil-fired plants to stabilize energy supply. These facilities, while reliant on fossil fuels, are able to provide consistent baseload power—something solar installations cannot offer without extensive and costly storage systems.
The DOE stated that the funding will now support measures that can be rapidly deployed, including:
- Dispatching baseload generation units (primarily oil-fired),
- Vegetation control to protect power lines,
- Upgrading aging grid infrastructure.
The rationale presented by the department emphasized practical impact and scale. In its statement, the DOE noted the redirection:
“will expand access to reliable power for millions of people rather than thousands” and yield “a higher return on investment for taxpayers”
while strengthening the island’s grid resilience.
This action reverses a core initiative from the prior administration, which had allocated the funds for projects that would not deliver any tangible energy benefits for at least two years. These projects, focused on solar panel deployment, were not intended to address Puerto Rico’s pressing energy needs, but rather to support broader policy goals disconnected from current grid conditions.
The change in course indicates a pivot away from speculative energy planning toward established and operational power sources that can address deficiencies immediately. In a territory facing persistent outages and infrastructure decay, the prioritization of reliable baseload power over delayed solar initiatives suggests a reassessment of policy priorities in favor of operational necessity.
This case illustrates the tension between federal policy directives and ground-level energy realities. Puerto Rico’s infrastructure issues require immediate and scalable solutions, not long-term experiments. The DOE’s redirection of funds underscores a recognition that stable power generation remains a foundational requirement—especially in regions prone to natural disasters and systemic outages.
While energy policy continues to be a politically charged issue, the circumstances in Puerto Rico demonstrate that reliability and speed of deployment remain critical considerations—factors that speculative energy projects often fail to address.
Source: Reuters, “US redirects Puerto Rico solar power funds to oil plants,” by Timothy Gardner, May 2025.
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This is good news. From 2000 to 2009, I flew to “the island” over 150 times in support of capital projects and technical matters for the pharmaceutical company I worked for. Great people and good memories. There had been tremendous growth in that industry there beginning in the ’70’s driven by federal tax provisions of the time. Imagine trying to run an advanced pharmaceutical plant from sunbeams and sea breezes. The large power plant fired by heavy oil was a major landmark on my way to and from the airport in San Juan.
Good for them, to get some help from DOE to go back to the fundamentals of what reliable power can accomplish.
Probably be a good place to start building some nuclear plants. Hauling in oil is expensive so once fueled, one or more nuclear plants would provide constant, dependable power.
Puerto Rico had an experimental nuclear power plant way back in the 1960s. Don’t know much about its history other than it sits right in front of one of my surfing hang out spots from my undergrad days at UPR/Mayagüez.
From a purely grid management standpoint, the island of Puerto Rico is a good candidate for one or more SMR’s. But at an initial capital cost in excess of $10,000/kw for the first tranche of SMR technologies, who is going to pay for it?
Puerto Rico’s current installed capacity is 7 GW. I couldn’t find a time series of power consumption, so I’m going to take a wild guess that the minimum power is between 4 and 5 GW. Those would be a good candidate for nuclear, which is excellent for baseload power. If people are worried, put them at the downwind end of the island for the prevailing wind.
Time to find out if the citizens of PR prefer to have a reliable electric grid or to make an inconsequential contribution to reducing their ‘carbon’ footprint.
The hot potato is LNG. There have been various attempts to get this going. There’s now even a Jones Act (i.e. US flag) vessel:
https://www.lngindustry.com/liquid-natural-gas/19032025/crowley-and-naturgy-deploy-first-us-lng-carrier-to-serve-puerto-rico/
Of course, HuffPost views it as impending disaster:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/puerto-rico-series-lng-nightmare_n_67042ee6e4b0f65b8775ea61
Tell that to the Germans with all the FLNG terminals they’re opening.
This Hydrogen capable CCGT project is however surely a high cost distraction – keep it simple and cheap instead:
https://www.clearygottlieb.com/news-and-insights/news-listing/puerto-ricos-p3-authority-in-landmark-agreement-with-energiza
I suspect Chris Wright has more work to do to sort out Puerto Rico. Probably the most urgent thing is to sort out the grid, with failures in transmission links being behind the island wide blackout recently.
One issue for Puerto Rico (and Hawaii) is repealing the Jones Act. Allowing imports of LNG from the US would allow combined cycle turbines to be used. As is, there are no US built LNG tankers.
There is one, and it’s on the Puerto Rico route. See the story I linked. However a Jones Act waiver would be a better solution, allowing any handy tanker to ship. There was one briefly previously, in 2022.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/foreign-lng-carriers-get-jones-act-waiver-for-shipments-to-puerto-rico
They have been importing from Trinidad,which probably works out just as well for the Island, if not for the US economy.
“Speculative” is way too kind a word for Ruinables.
Just a note, Puerto Ricans have gotten so used to power outages that those who can afford it have installed rooftop solar and batteries. A lot of them just don’t care about the grid power. I learned this from a friend whose relatives he communicates with regularly live on the island
I haunt an electrical contractor forum. We have a member who has done just this. He was having a heck of a time getting things set up. He was putting together solar, batteries, and the grid. The goal was to have solar run things during the day and charge the batteries for overnight and let the grid step in to charge the batteries as needed. The solar panels, batteries (Tesla) and the inverter were all different brands and did not play well together.
Puerto Rico is impacted by hurricanes.
Those have been known to inflict structural damage on houses and buildings amongst many other tragedies.
Roof top solar on houses that cannot withstand hurricanes is a bad plan.
That plan might as well have been named How to Flush Megabucks Down the Sewar.
They also need a robust grid, designed to withstand hurricanes, with damage more easily fixed where it occurs. Maria was extremely destructive.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Maria_in_Puerto_Rico
$102 billion in damages in 2018…they would have been far better off using the money elsewhere…but hey, modern economic theory says somebody got the money…so no prob…
Perhaps even more to the point:
and