Community Resilience in Mariana
Mariana Case Study
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2018, entire communities found themselves in the dark without power. 3 million people in schools, hospitals, and businesses were left wondering if and when the grid would be restored. Designed in a Princeton Research Lab after the 2010 Haiti earthquake for this very purpose, BoxPower rapidly deployed a solar microgrid system to the rural community of Mariana.
Rapid Deployment
The rural community of Mariana experienced some of the worst impacts from Hurricane Maria and was told grid electricity would not return for more than 9 months. BoxPower was able to deploy its system rapidly and ensure power returned much more quickly. This is thanks to its simple, modular, and intuitive design that can be installed just like an ikea set.
Community Resilience
Not only would power be out for up to nine months after Hurricane Maria, but Mariana was a community that experienced frequent outages in normal times averaging more than 100 outage hours per year. Thanks to a community resilience initiative, power was available to its laundromat, coworking space, and health clinic after hurricane Maria and into the future. Instead of a short term solution like a diesel generator, the community turned towards a long term, community-based solution built on a foundation of clean, reliable power provided by BoxPower’s solar microgrids.
This unit, our first, continues to power the community center through the 2019 hurricane season and the January 2020 earthquakes ensuring clean, reliable, affordable power 24/7.
