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Getting Serious about Solar for Disaster Response and Recovery

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Two seemingly separate trends are currently colliding. One is the more severe and widespread damage being inflicted on electric grids during natural disasters, especially from the increasingly stronger storms like hurricane Maria that devastated Puerto Rico. The second is the many technological advances in solar power generation and energy storage, which also lead to ongoing cost reductions across the solar value chain. The prospect of using solar power on a temporary basis, including for disaster response and recovery, is not new, of course. Indeed, Hurricane Hugo in 1988 is believed to be the first time that solar power was used for relief in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Despite the fact that solar PV and related technologies have advanced considerably during the nearly three decades since then, diesel gensets continue to dominate disaster relief efforts. So is it finally time for the solar energy industry to get serious about this growing need? The Case for Solar Time, and...