PROYECTO SOLAR VIEQUES 2025

Please Donate to Proyecto Solar Vieques 2025!

Our solar project in Vieques is small but nimble, and this year we made good use of our ability to adapt to change. We started the 2024 campaign without enough donations to offer even one backup PV system to a household in Vieques. Instead, we pivoted to installing PV equipment that residents acquired with their own funds, and the Project was able to donate the Balance-of-System components and some missing parts to keep the work flowing. In addition, we got in touch with our roots as solar DHW (Domestic Hot Water) installers and completed 4 solar DHW systems in and around Esperanza. Our focus is households with residents who are old, sick, or have special needs, where hot water is welcome for both comfort and sanitation. In the PV department, we did both our largest (18 kW solar, 20 kWh LiFePo battery) installation, and our smallest.

Thanks to your generosity, donations kept coming while we were in Vieques, and this year we:

*installed, repaired, or upgraded 9 PV systems

*installed and repaired 4 solar hot water heaters

In addition we participated in new efforts to promote bicycling in Vieques (BikesnotBombs is starting a project in Vieques and independently there was a community bike ride for kids).

We were also happy to attend a coconut oil processing workshop at La Colmena Cimarrona.

This year’s effort was made possible by about a dozen volunteers, evenly split between Viequense and visitors. Thank you to everyone who helped out and special thanks to Kathy for organizing everything and keeping track of donations and logistics. Thanks as well to Herminia and Ique for heading up our installation team and being both “boots on the ground” and angels in the background. And to Jonathon for letting us use his house as headquarters. Thanks to Petri who has selflessly contributed work, ideas, and inspiration since the very beginning. Lastly, special thanks to the committee of 5 who steer and guide our efforts: Herminia Belardo, Ique Alejandro, Kathy Gannett, Marianett Hernandez, and Lucy Landro.

Among my first friends on Vieques is Pichi Quiñones, who gave me the thumbs up from his motorcycle as he passed me struggling up the hill from the ferry on my loaded bicycle. He had already cut the weeds around Casa Orquídea so I could pitch my tent there.

Therefore it was a special honor and pleasure this year to work with Pichi and his mother Bani on their new house in La Hueca. The house is half done. Like all the houses in the neighborhood, it has no electricity. Bani, wisely not trusting my Spanish, sat down with a pencil and paper and showed me a calculation in plain arithmetic; she spent $2.50 per day on ice to keep her medication cold. That expense reduced her $280 monthly pension by more than 25%, not to mention the inconvenience. She had found a broken inverter and had it repaired, while Pichi had a collection of miscellaneous solar panels, including 6 from our original shipment in 2019. Thanks to your donations we were able to buy Pichi and Bani the batteries and charge controller they needed to get electricity to their refrigerator.

With everyone helping, the fridge was cold by late afternoon, with electricity to spare for lights, fans, and batidas. I can’t think of a better example of the way in which a small donation leverages my ability to help our Viequense compañeros. Without funds, I can help by carrying ice to La Hueca on my bicycle. With a little money, together we can spend a day bringing enough clean, quiet solar electricity to La Hueca to make it unnecessary to fetch ice ever again.

We are committed to volunteering in Vieques again in 2025. The proposed DOE solar program won’t help houses that don’t have grid electricity (Communities like La Hueca, Verde Vieques, and Sta. Elena), so the most precarious and vulnerable are being left out of the federal program. Additionally, households helped by the federal program will undoubtedly need technical support and repairs. There is community interest in solar hot water heaters and rain catchment systems which increase resilience and save money. Our ability to volunteer is made possible largely by your donations that allow us to buy supplies which keep the work flowing. Thanks to IMA, our non-profit fiscal sponsor, ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE. Please donate early to the 2025 project so we can maximize our solidarity work in Vieques. Gracias.