On storm-ravaged Vieques, a microgrid builds resilience

Nine years after Hurricane Maria devastated the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques, residents are still dealing with unreliable power from the main island - not so much blackouts but "brownouts," dips in power that can destroy appliances and electrical infrastructure.

"We're kind of at the end of the supply line, so anytime there are big power issues on the main island, we end up running into problems," said Vieques resident Edgar Oscar Ruiz, executive director of Community Through Colors, a local nonprofit focused on emergency relief and long-term resilience. "We have tons of stories of people having issues with their equipment. We hear especially from restaurants that are fed up trying to store food, and then there are the stories of residents, the elderly with medical problems dealing with this - it can be a lot."

Late last year, Ruiz and a Cornell team took a significant step towards a solution with the delivery of a large, mobile, solar-powered battery that operates independently of the main island's grid. Housed at Ruiz's farm and resilience center, La Finca de Hamberto, the battery now powers two refrigerated semi-trailer trucks full of local food - food that will stay cold even when the power fades, or in the event of another catastrophic storm.

It's the first installment of a larger project, led by Héctor Abruña, the Emile M. Chamot Professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, in collaboration with the community, to give the island's 8,000 permanent U.S. citizens reliable power and complete independence from the main island's grid. Another battery will arrive in early summer, and plans are underway for the 2027 installation of a green-hydrogen fuel cell system - a research focus of Abruña's - that will provide sustained, on-demand power for all.

"The hydrogen fuel cell and larger battery storage will make the whole farm completely independent of any grid connection. Once that's done, then we can say: Let's electrify the whole island of Vieques," Abruña said. "It's eminently scalable and will demonstrate how you can electrify isolated, and often forgotten, communities and make them more resilient to catastrophic events like Maria."

The project is one in a portfolio run by Cornell's Abruña Energy Initiative(AEI), established with funding from Volkswagon's 2019 class-action settlement; the initiative's mission, carried out by a small team including director of operations Danielle Hanes and adviser Paul Mutolo '94, is to accelerate the adoption of clean-energy infrastructure.

"When you look at images of the devastation that Maria brought - it's heartbreaking," said Abruña, an award-winning electrochemist who has received some of the nation's highest honors for his research. "Personally, because I am from Puerto Rico, this will probably be the most important thing I will do in my life."

Immediate impact

Eight miles off the eastern coast of the main island, Vieques suffered a near-direct hit from Hurricane Maria in 2017, the most devastating storm in Puerto Rico's history. The storm destroyed infrastructure, including the hospital and a small power plant, neither of which have reopened. Ferries to the island were down for two weeks, cutting off supplies of food and drinking water. The community lacked grid power from the main island for 18 months, the second-longest blackout in world history, and had to depend on small batteries and diesel-powered generators for electricity.

"It was just an insane number of days," Ruiz said.

Eventually power started to flow again through the underwater cable - which Abruña described as a "glorified extension cord" - that connects the islands. But the high cost and inconsistency of the power have delayed rebuilding. Businesses that rely on consistent power for operations or cold storage are quick to turnover; one restaurant owner who works closely with the farm recently left the island after a brownout ruined his newly purchased freezers.

"He just said, 'we're done as a restaurant, this is too much,'" said Beth Straight '22, operations manager for Community Through Colors. Straight volunteered at La Finca de Hamberto as a Cornell undergraduate and returned after graduation to live and work. She said the frequent power issues have saddled island residents, many of whom can't afford to leave, with rising costs to replace appliances, spoiled food and medications.

The impact of the new battery was immediate, Straight said. Manufactured by Buffalo-based energy storage company Viridi - and shepherded to Vieques with help from another Cornell alumna, Tess M. Williams '15 - the battery holds enough charge to power a small home for three days and is designed to prevent overheating. The farm can now store medications, build a backup food supply for the island and provide storage for the community kitchen, which often feeds residents who can't prepare their own meals due to medical or power issues.

In March, the farm added capacity with more solar panels, this time on scaffolding so chickens can be housed in the shade underneath. Once the second battery arrives in May, the farm can always have one battery charging and one deployed - to critical infrastructure such as the fire station, local clinic or the community center, where residents might gather after a storm or power outage to charge their phones or stay cool.

With an expected installation in early 2027, the green-hydrogen fuel cell system will use a solar-powered electrolyzer to extract hydrogen from water. The hydrogen can then be stored and used as fuel and will allow the community to generate power as needed.

"Hydrogen is much more versatile and flexible than batteries," Abruña said. "If you need more power, you can add more tanks for the hydrogen or add another fuel cell."

The overall energy system will be community-owned, and Abruña estimates that it will slash the cost of electricity for residents roughly in half - from 30 to 33 cents a kilowatt hour currently to around 15 cents.

Already, the first phase of the project is providing relief and a sense of agency.

"Hopefully nothing as catastrophic as Maria happens again, but we're also trying to create resiliency," Ruiz said.

A community voice

Ruiz and Straight connected with the Cornell team through an earlier funding proposal - which fell through.

"We could have all moved on," Ruiz said. "But we just looked at each other and said: Let's find a way to figure this out."

That commitment bonded the group, Straight said.

"Just the Cornell team's willingness to operate with boots on the ground and to see what everyone can contribute - what resources the university can contribute but also taking the community in mind - it made a huge difference and is probably why we're still going today," she said.

Abruña said an early challenge was earning trust. "This is a community that has experienced disappointment time and time again, where people have made promises and asked for things from them and delivered very little," he said. "All we asked for was their support, and once we had that buy-in, it's no longer just our voice, it's a community voice."

Soon after the battery was connected to solar for its first full charging, local government officials joined Abruña's team and the farm staff and volunteers to celebrate.

"Seeing it come to reality was a big deal," Ruiz said.

"It was like a child being born," Abruña said. "You take the same kind of care, there's this little creature that's emerging, and you have to sustain it until it gets a life of its own," Abruña said. "Now, I think it has a life of its own."