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The Puerto Rico Solar and Storage Association (SESA) requested U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm late last week to issue a directive ensuring that Puerto Rico is included in reports funded by the federal Energy Department (DOE) across the United States and its territories.
At present, Puerto Rico is not featured in all of the generated reports.
This information was included in a statement released by SESA last Thursday.
Javier Rúa-Jovet, the public policy director at SESA, remarked, “Puerto Rico is frequently left out of national reports and research.”
“For instance, Puerto Rico has historically been excluded from NREL [National Renewable Energy Laboratory] reports regarding the advancement of the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), even though the island has enacted and encountered challenges in implementing such policies,” Rúa-Jovet noted. “Participation in these national studies is vital to achieving true visibility of local renewable progress and identifying critical focus areas.”
In Puerto Rico, significant legislation has been enacted that remains only partially implemented, even though similar policies are predictably and consistently applied in other areas. For instance, Act 17, enacted in 2019, mandates 40% renewable energy by 2025 and 100% by 2050. Nonetheless, DOE-funded studies monitoring RPS progress in the United States exclude Puerto Rico, leaving the island’s challenges overlooked and unaddressed.
Rúa-Jovet further emphasized that “ensuring Puerto Rico’s participation in these assessments is not merely a question of accuracy, but also about fairness.”
“The energy issues facing Puerto Rico, especially concerning renewable energy, warrant tracking, scrutiny, and resolution with the same thoroughness and focus applied to the states,” he stated. “We think this could be established as an official DOE directive and method, institutionalizing the inclusion of all U.S. jurisdictions and ensuring clear reporting.”
