Helping Puerto Rico Achieve 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

Berkeley Lab joins in broad federal effort to develop pathways for island's clean energy future. Berkeley Lab and five other DOE national labs have launched the PR100 study, to help Puerto Rico meet its goal of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2050. (Credit: TexPhoto/iStock) Researchers at Berkeley Lab are working with five other Department of Energy national labs to develop a roadmap for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to meet its 100% renewable energy mandate. A new Memorandum of Understanding , signed earlier this month between the Commonwealth and the federal government, kickstarts this "PR100 Study," a two-year project funded by FEMA to conduct a comprehensive analysis of pathways for Puerto Rico to meet its clean energy goals, with an emphasis on power system reliability, resilience, and generation planning. "The grid challenges of moving to 100% renewable energy are compounded in an island system that has to be electrically self-sufficient, relies on oil to generate 45% of their electricity at present, and has a utility currently in bankruptcy," said Berkeley Lab researcher Peter Cappers, an expert in utility regulation and rate design. "These are the types of challenges that the DOE national labs have the experience and know-how to take on." Along with doing modeling and analysis of Puerto Rico's energy needs and various scenarios for meeting those needs, the study will look at the economic impacts and factors associated with the different pathways. Cappers noted, for example, that Puerto Rico has various options to meet its renewable energy generation requirements.