"Dancing linemen who dangled from power poles during the Super Bowl halftime show by Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny were a pointed reference to the island's power grid, which has been hit hard by a series of hurricanes and, experts agree, is in dire need of modernization. In the past year, however, Trump administration appointees at the Department of Energy have canceled $815 million of a $1-billion fund meant to bolster the island's grid against storms and outages."
"In 2017 Hurricane Maria destroyed 80 percent of the island's transmission and distribution lines, and this led to months-long power outages. In 2022 Hurricane Fiona again knocked out power for more than 80 percent of the island's residents. Widespread blackouts have become a regular feature of life in Puerto Rico. There electricity problems are an everyday problem, said Max Lainfiesta, a member of the Islands Energy Program at the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute, to Scientific American in 2022."
"After Hurricane Fiona, Congress passed an appropriations bill that delivered funds to the territory with the aim of building a resilient, distributed energy system for the island. The Trump administration canceled the majority of the funding this past spring, however. And in January the administration delivered a death blow to a program that was meant to deploy backup solar and storage systems at hospitals and at 30,000 homes of rural, low-income and medically vulnerable people, according to Latitude Media."
Dancing linemen in the Super Bowl halftime show referenced Puerto Rico's damaged power grid and the island's urgent need for modernization. Hurricanes have repeatedly devastated infrastructure: Hurricane Maria in 2017 destroyed 80 percent of transmission and distribution lines, causing months-long outages, and Hurricane Fiona in 2022 knocked out power for more than 80 percent of residents. Widespread blackouts have become a regular feature of life in Puerto Rico. Congress provided funds for a resilient, distributed energy system after Fiona, but Department of Energy appointees canceled most funding and ended programs for backup solar and storage, leaving the grid's future uncertain.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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