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The San Juan Daily Star
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
PREPA urged to move forward with rooftop solar systems By THE STAR STAFF
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n organization that comprises groups that promote the use of solar energy asked the governing board of the bankrupt Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to begin a participatory and transparent process that would focus on the installation of solar panels on rooftops to generate electricity instead of on the construction of solar farms. Queremos Sol wants PREPA to take steps to acquire equipment that takes advantage of the abundance of resources in terms of roofs and solar energy storage systems, which can be installed immediately by dozens of PREPA employees already trained in renewable energy technology, in collaboration with community groups. The petition is in response to PREPA’s express intention to advance the goal of generating all energy from renewable sources by 2050, based on megaprojects that would negatively impact farmland of high ecological value. “Our studies show that the cost of generating photovoltaic electricity on roofs is by far cheaper than the price PREPA will
pay for photovoltaic solar energy from large farms,” Agustín Irizarry, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez and one of the island’s leading authorities on energy issues, said in a statement Monday. PREPA recently said it had signed some 16 power purchase agreements, most of them consisting of solar power farms. Irizarry said “the cost of generating solar energy on rooftops decreases over time.” “In contrast, the price of renewable energy on large farms increases over time because the contracts announced by PREPA lead to an increase of 2 percent per year,” he said. “To this cost we must add around 5 cents, the cost of PREPA’s basic rate.” The group noted that the projects favored by PREPA would compromise fertile agricultural lands at a time when Puerto Rico needs to expand its food security resources and protect its ecology. “Most of the proposed large solar installations are located on land of agricultural or natural value,” said Ingrid M.
Vila Biaggi, president of Cambio, one of the proponents of Queremos Sol. “We have enough space on the roofs to generate electricity, so we reject the use of fertile land and land of ecological value for solar projects. Decisions cannot be made in a vacuum. The crisis we are facing with the COVID-19 pandemic shows us the importance of securing land for the country’s food security and reiterates the close relationship between
environmental conditions and public health.” The group emphasized that the destruction of the electrical transmission and distribution system by Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico without electricity despite the fact that the generation system was working. This demonstrates the need to develop renewable rooftop projects that directly benefit communities, the members of Queremos Sol said.
Puerto Rican veterans memorial in Boston vandalized By JOHN McPHAUL jpmcphaul@gmail.com
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uerto Rican veterans were outraged by the desecration of a Puerto Rican veterans memorial in the South End of Boston over the weekend, the Boston Herald reported Monday. The veterans memorial was vandalized on the eve of Memorial Day, with two stones damaged, including one knocked over, and a Puerto Rican flag lowered. “Workers on Sunday attempted to fix one of the stones near the entrance of the plaza at 1140 Washington St.,” said the Herald report. “Tony Molina, president of the Puerto Rican Veterans Monument Square Association, estimated the piece of granite weighed over 1,000 pounds.” “[It’s] disrespectful not because this is a Puerto Rican veterans memorial, this is a monument for veterans who gave their lives,” Molina told the Herald on
Sunday. “Whoever did it doesn’t realize it’s because of us veterans he can do that.” “The damage was reported at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning, according to Boston police,” the Herald article said. “The statue in the plaza, featuring a male and female soldier, was not alleged to have been vandalized.” According to the report, Molina is “a Marine Corps veteran who was the first Puerto Rican wounded in Vietnam in 1965.” He told the Herald that “the first portion of the memorial was dedicated in 1999 before the statue was unveiled in 2013.” “The important thing about this, [and what] people don’t realize, [is that] Puerto Ricans have fought in every single war for this country since the Revolutionary War,” Molina told the Herald. “And per capita, Puerto Ricans have lost more men than any other state.” “Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, a Navy veteran who also saw a World
War II monument in his neighborhood vandalized last year with oil, called the action disrespectful,” said the Herald. “On the eve of Memorial Day, for the men and women that paid the
supreme sacrifice for our country, it’s very insulting,” Flynn told the Herald. Robert Santiago, the city’s deputy commissioner at the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Services, called the damage disheartening, the report said. “I don’t understand why somebody would do something like that,” Santiago, a Puerto Rican and a Navy veteran, said Sunday. Santiago told the Herald that the statue would be fixed before an event at noon on Memorial Day with elected officials. “Boston police are investigating the incident, including review of a nearby camera pointed toward the park,” the report said. A Boston Police Department spokesman said on Sunday afternoon that “police detectives and the city’s Civil Rights Unit were investigating the incident,” the Herald reported. Molina told the newspaper that he and other veterans would like to talk with the person or people who vandalized the plaza. “I’d love to see to find out who did it,” Molina said.