In December 2022, Congress appropriated $1 billion in the FY 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act for activities to improve the resilience of the Puerto Rican electric grid, including renewable energy and storage solutions for vulnerable households and communities.

Per the Act, these activities

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will include resilience investments for low-and-moderate income households and households with individuals with disabilities.

The U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) Grid Deployment Office (GDO) established the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) to administer the $1 billion through a program focused on both residential and community-based energy resilience investments, including but not limited to solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage deployments, as well as community partnerships and other activities to grow Puerto Rico’s clean energy economy.

This first Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) under the PR-ERF has three Strategic Goals:
(1) Enhance energy resilience for vulnerable households through the rapid installation of rooftop solar PV and battery storage systems.

Through this first funding opportunity, DOE aims to incentivize the installation of roughly 30,000-40,000 residential systems; (2) Reduce energy burden (i.e., the percentage of gross household income spent on energy costs) for program beneficiaries; and (3) Support the growth of the clean energy workforce in Puerto Rico, as well as support education and protection for beneficiaries.To accomplish these goals, this FOA has three (3) Topic Areas:Topic Area 1:
Third-Party Residential Rooftop Solar PV and Battery Storage DeploymentTopic Area 2:
Community-Sponsored Residential Rooftop Solar PV and Battery Storage DeploymentTopic Area 3:
Beneficiary Education, Training, and Consumer Protection