After Storms, Puerto Rico New Solar Systems to Include Batteries

(Bloomberg) -- Still reeling from two hurricanes that wiped out much of Puerto Rico’s electric grid last year, the island’s largest rooftop solar power provider plans to add battery storage with each new home installation.

Sunnova Energy Corp.’s 10,000 customers in Puerto Rico lost power when the grid went down because the rooftop panels operate via the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority utility. Batteries can make systems continue to work during grid outages, such as the widespread ones which followed the September storms.

Sunnova, a Houston-based solar leasing company, has been losing revenue on its downed systems. It has been trying to add batteries to as many homes on the island as possible to get them running again and wants to keep customers operating through the next hurricane, according to a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Margot Habiby, Will Wade

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