If you think about the island of Puerto Rico, you might think about an island where there is plenty of sunshine all year around. This could be an opportunity to help the island be more self-sufficient. However you also might think about lost opportunities.

In an article by Danica Coto of the Associated Press, Puerto Rico is a US territory that most of the time, the US Congress can play a role but it seems to be 1 step forward and 2 steps back. The US Department of Energy and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently released a report which said it could be possible for Puerto Rico to be off fossil fuels by 2050.

The power grid of Puerto Rico is complex, isolated, reliant of imported fuels and vulnerable to extreme weather events including hurricanes. Power plants that generate electricity rely on coal, oil and natural gas with renewables accounting for 3%.

Decades of operational, maintenance, and financial challenges have resulted in a system that lags far behind accepted reliability levels. (An example of this was after Hurricane Maria, a contract was given to a small power company in North Dakota and they were going to fix the system?)

The agencies want to change the number because the poverty rate in Puerto Rico is about 40%. The US territory has recently come out of the biggest US municipal bankruptcy in history.

One solution offered is new federally funded program that will subsidize residential rooftop solar and battery storage systems for up to 30,000 low-income households on the island. Homeowners who quality can start applying on Feb 22.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times government subsidies or supports are needed to fix serious problems. Companies have to supply the materials and some of the money will be profits. Governments release the information on which companies are supplying the solutions and potentially you could read the releases and see if it is material to possible investments.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.