Solar-Plus-Storage a “Game Changer” for Jamaica Residents During Hurricane Melissa-Sparked Outages

For Jennifer Hue, who lives near Treasure Beach, a $42,000 solar-plus-storage system consisting of 13 kW of solar and 19.2 kWh of energy storage has kept her electricity flowing. She was fortunate enough to avoid damage to her home and solar system while all around her, “it looks like a bomb dropped,” she said.

Her home, which also includes Starlink powered by solar and storage, served as a sanctuary for neighbors and friends.

“We were Grand Central for Treasure Beach,” Hue said.

Without electricity, residents have no water–because water pumps aren't operating–no internet and no refrigeration for food, she said.

What’s more, buying food at grocery stores is a challenge.The stores can’t take credit cards because telecommunications equipment is down. Stores want cash, but for those who don’t have cash on hand, it’s difficult to travel to a bank 30 miles away when so many roads are unpassable.

Fortunately, her farm has provided some food and so have friends, Todd said.

Solar provider is a community educator during storms

Both residents were warned to prepare by Jason Robinson, CEO of Solar Buzz Jamaica, who has installed about 300 solar-plus-storage systems for small businesses and homeowners. Living in Jamaica, he’s not just a solar provider. He supplies critical information during storms, Robinson said.

A few days before a storm hits–when it tends to be cloudy–he reminds his customers to charge their batteries with utility power. When the grid goes down, he tells them they should switch to using solar to power the batteries.

When Hurricane Melissa landed, only a few of his customers’ solar panels, mostly located close to the beach, were damaged, Robinson said. They’re most vulnerable to flying debris striking them. Solar Buzz Jamaica installs a racking system built to withstand 145 to 150 mph wind gusts. In Montego Bay, where winds were as high as 185 mph, the solar systems sustained no damage.

Solar Buzz Jamaica’s solar-plus-storage systems weren’t the only solar microgrids that helped keep electricity flowing.

Clean energy systems were provided by organizations

Footprint Project, which deploys clean energy systems during disasters, teamed up with regional partners World Food Programme, Direct Relief, LIFT Non-Profit Logistics and the Jamaica Renewable Energy Association to bring its sustainable response technologies to the island and support those most in need.

The day before the hurricane landed in Jamaica, Footprint Project prepared to donate over 150 portable solar and battery power stations valued at more than $100,000, the nonprofit said in a LinkedIn post. Funding and in-kind assets came from Schneider Electric, Direct Relief, Salesforce, Target, Sunrun, TE Connectivity, New Use Energy, Ecoflow, Tesla and SpaceX.

How small community microgrids can help Jamaica and other islands

In addition to residential solar-plus-storage systems and emergency solar microgrids, Jamaica and other islands vulnerable to hurricanes could benefit from small renewable microgrids located on a utility feeder that could power neighborhoods for four or so hours a day, said Hiva Nasiri, vice president, applied sciences at the consulting firm Thornton Tomasetti. Duke Energy has this type of microgrid serving Hot Springs, North Carolina, he said.

“Just solar and a battery for four hours a day is more than enough for an area that otherwise might go two months without power,” he said. “A small community microgrid can have enough power to give people a good quality of life for a few hours.”

Jamaica is especially vulnerable to hurricanes because it has exposed overhead lines, little grid redundancy, steep terrain that boosts the risk of landslides and limited access roads, which makes it difficult to reach damaged parts of the grid, said Robert Macnee, deputy director, Climate Resilience Consulting, which helps organizations and communities boost resilience.

Designing for future hurricanes

To grapple with the hurricane risk, the island could install microgrids and distributed generation to keep critical sites powered, bury electricity lines and develop grid and transport redundancy, he said. Building resilience into routine upgrades of transmission stations and infrastructure is also an option, yielding $10 in benefits for every $1 spent. And resilience hubs in community centers, with backup generators, can provide emergency shelter, medical supplies and treatment  and emergency communication equipment.

It’s also important to design for future, not past risk. “Just because something has survived a flood or storm before doesn't mean that it will survive a larger one. Melissa was unprecedented in strength for Jamaica,” Macnee said.

If such measures are not in place, Jamaicans tend to rely on their resilient personalities, said Hue.

“Jamaicans really bounce back. We have a good sense of humor. We will prevail, we will start over and get new lines and poles installed for the next storm,” she said.