A coalition of 28 organizations, including U.S. and Puerto Rican nonprofits, solar and battery companies, filed a Friend of the Court brief (Amicus) in federal court this week to stand against the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMB). The coalition argues that FOMB’s legal attack on Act 10 — a law extending Puerto Rico’s net metering program through 2030 — threatens the island’s progress in solar energy and resilience.
Act 10, signed into law this January, was passed unanimously by the Puerto Rico House and Senate and was unopposed by the island’s regulator. The law aims to ensure continued access to affordable solar power for Puerto Ricans, by giving solar customers credits on their power bills for every excess kWh of solar energy they shared on the power grid.
“10% of Puerto Rico’s houses now have solar with backup battery power thanks to the policy of net metering,” said PJ Wilson, executive director of the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico (SESA). “We’re fighting for the ability of the other 90% to be able to as well.”
FOMB asserts that Act 10 prevents Puerto Rico’s independent energy regulator, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, from preparing a study required to evaluate the impact of current net metering and energy distribution program until at least 2031, and thus undermines the Energy Bureau’s ability to regulate the Puerto Rico energy sector.
The coalition Amicus Brief supports defensive positions taken in court by the Defendant, Governor Pierluisi and by the President of the Puerto Rico Senate, which has asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed on the grounds that FOMB lacks the authority to interfere with implementation of Act 10, a law which essentially just moves the potential sunset date of a longstanding law from one year to another.
The Brief explains that FOMB’s opposition to solar power disregards unanimous votes for Act 10 across all five political parties in Puerto Rico’s legislature, spanning the whole political spectrum. In fact, the law enjoys widespread support, including a May 2024 letter from 21 members of the U.S. Congress urging FOMB to drop its harmful attack on solar. A coalition of national and Puerto Rico nonprofits has also called upon the White House to help.
“Net metering is more than a policy; it’s a pathway to hope for Puerto Ricans facing frequent outages and high energy costs,” said Javier Rúa Jovet, public policy director for SESA. “This coalition is standing up to defend net metering because Puerto Rico deserves a reliable, clean energy future that FOMB’s actions seek to undermine.”
FOMB is a temporary oversight agency created by US Congress in 2016, in reaction to the island’s financial collapse at the time. The primary charge of FOMB was settling the island’s debt, and the entity will dissolve after all bankruptcies on the island are settled, Puerto Rico has regained access to the capital market, and the government has four balanced budgets. All bankruptcies are currently settled except that of PREPA, the island’s sole electric utility.
News item from SESA
““10% of Puerto Rico’s houses now have solar with backup battery power thanks to the policy of net metering,” said PJ Wilson, executive director of the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico (SESA). “We’re fighting for the ability of the other 90% to be able to as well.””
The thing here is when hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017 the devistation finally had an approved allotment of ($93) billion earmarked for Puerto Rico. At that time in 2017 one could have bought every home in Puerto Rico a 8-10kWp solar PV array and a 20kWh TESLA Power wall for right at an estimate of $63 billion dollars installed for parts and BOM in 2017-2018 dollars. Of course this didn’t happen and now one is circling around again trying to get solar PV for the “other 90%” of the population. Bureaucracy and politics, how many times must something be done (wrong) and how much will it cost, until it is done (right) once? The mention of PREPA in this article is a constant thread throughout Puerto Rico’s energy woes, even before Maria hit the island. Maria was the worst event, yet, there have been some serious tropical depressions and other hurricanes that have brushed Puerto Rico every year since Maria ploughed across the island.