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A year and a half after Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the remote island-municipality of Culebra, which lies about 17 miles off the main island of Puerto Rico, Culebra finally had its utility power restored. However, since Culebra regained utility power, its only hospital, the Culebra Center for Diagnosis and Treatment (CDT), still faced the unreliability of the national grid as well as the inconvenience of fuel-powered generators.

When setting out to build its new corporate headquarters, Santa Cruz-based solar installer Sandbar Solar & Electric had a choice: plan and pay for the costly, multi-year process of connecting to utility power or equip the building to run independently from the grid. As a renewable energy installer, the decision to install a solar-plus-storage microgrid was natural.

By Solar Power WorldRead the full article on their website here.Continuing education is important in all industries, especially solar. As technologies evolve, new installation techniques arise to make solar systems safer and more efficient. The best place to learn these new skills is often at tradeshows and conferences when more industry peers are together to exchange tips and tricks.On account of coronavirus halting gatherings for a while, we reached out to the would-be presenters at the NABCEP Continuing Education conference for their best advice on three questions:

In Puerto Rico’s rural town of Barrio Rabanal, Blue Planet Energy’s Blue Ion battery system provides water security. The system integrates battery storage, solar, and a backup generator to provide independent power for the community water system when the utility grid fails.

Gabriel Perez, regional manager for Blue Planet Energy in Latin America, was recently recognized on stage by the Clinton Foundation for his work supporting and developing the renewable energy workforce in Puerto Rico. Perez’s work with Asociación de Contratistas y Consultores de Energía Renovable (ACONER), for which he is on the Board, caught the attention of the Clinton Foundation, which celebrated all the major stakeholders on the island who are actively engaged with rebuilding a more resilient Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.Watch Secretary Hillary Clinton deliver a summary of the commitments in Puerto Rico’s workforce development from collaborators Bosque Modelo, Solar Energy International, Oxfam America, Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer (CPM), Segarra Boerman Foundation, and ACONER (video courtesy of SEI). You will be able to spot Perez representing Blue Planet Energy and Hawaii by his blue kukui nut lei.

One of Blue Planet Energy’s favorite events, the annual NABCEP CE Conference, is right around the corner. We look forward to reconnecting with many of the solar and energy storage industry’s top-tier professionals at the Saint Charles Convention Center on March 16–19, 2020. Blue Planet Energy is exhibiting at this year's event, and we look forward to talking shop with you at Booth 16 on the expo floor.Blue Planet Energy is also hosting two 90-minute technical trainings at the conference that provide deep dives into the design and installation of Blue Planet Energy’s battery storage and power systems. Join your industry colleagues and learn the safety, reliability, and performance advantages of Blue Planet Energy’s best-in-class Blue Ion systems for residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural projects.

Blue Planet Energy’s CEO, Chris Johnson, recently spoke at a ClimateLink Solar + Battery Microgrids discussion about improving our resilience against power outages and other power grid disruptions. ClimateLink is an organization with a mission to accelerate the development and deployment of climate action technologies through meetups where attendees discuss green solutions and innovative ideas. The meetings act as a starting point for sparking action on what we can do about the climate emergency.We teased out sections of Chris’ presentation for you to watch and learn about the Blue Planet Energy origin story, trends in the clean energy market, our resilience projects in Puerto Rico, and more.

By: Kelly Pickerel, Solar Power WorldRead the article on Solar Power World's website here.Plane crashes rarely happen, but the fear of an accident is real for many people. Still, thousands of Americans fly every day. The NBC television drama “This is Us” showed that Crock-Pots can cause house fires, but we’re still cooking chilis and roasts while we’re away at work.The threat of energy storage systems causing or contributing to building fires is also real yet incredibly rare, but as adoption grows, life and property wellbeing will become larger concerns.Right now, solar + storage fire worries usually arise around lithium-ion technologies, with a divided war between nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) providers (Tesla Powerwall, LG Chem) and those developing lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries (sonnen, SimpliPhi). On paper, NMC batteries have an increased risk of thermal runaway, the phenomenon that causes battery fires, simply because of the addition of cobalt. But put even an LFP battery in a less-than-ideal situation, and the end result of an accidental fire is the same — potential damage to the system, nearby surroundings and human life.

Since December 2017, Blue Planet Energy has worked with non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as the American Red Cross, to restore Puerto Rico's critical infrastructure such as water and power. Read the full article on Pacific Business News here.