“The federal government is not pro-solar, but batteries seem to be generally uncontroversial on both sides of the aisle in the States,” said Javier Rúa-Jovet, chief policy officer for the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico. He noted that while batteries can soak up wind and solar power to provide around-the-clock clean energy, they also enable gas-fired power plants and generators to operate more nimbly to meet demand.
Rúa-Jovet spoke earlier this week from San Juan, which is grappling with not only a faulty electric grid but also an aging, underfunded water system. Authorities recently began rationing water in the capital and other major cities as an intense drought exacerbates long-standing infrastructure issues.
On the Pattern project, Rúa-Jovet said he applauded the DOE’s loan, despite losing the solar component. “Batteries of all sizes, in all places on the grid, are great for everyone,” he added.
The new storage projects “could also support the integration of greater renewable energy onto the system,” said Cathy Kunkel, an energy consultant at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Pattern’s utility-scale battery project is advancing as the Trump administration disrupts efforts in Puerto Rico to deploy networks of smaller batteries paired with rooftop solar systems, including for medically vulnerable, low-income residents. Under Trump, the DOE has redirected hundreds of millions of dollars in federal resiliency funding away from such initiatives in order to shore up the island’s fossil-fuel power plants and gas pipeline infrastructure.
Congress originally meant for the funding to broaden access to Puerto Rico’s solar-plus-storage boom, which has provided a lifeline for many residents amid an onslaught of blackouts, electrical surges, and soaring electricity rates. In 2025, utility customers experienced an average of 36 hours of power interruptions not related to major events like hurricanes, up by 19% from 2024. By contrast, people on the U.S. mainland typically lack power for an average of just two hours per year, according to federal data.
Most of Puerto Rico’s energy storage capacity is divided across roughly 200,000 households and businesses, whose batteries totaled almost 2,900 MWh at the end of 2025.
Jenniffer González-Colón, the Trump-allied governor of Puerto Rico, has recently backed away from the island’s ambitious renewable energy goals in favor of expanding fossil fuels. Last year, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau approved a new 560-MW gas plant in San Juan, and regulators are looking to procure another 3 gigawatts of power capacity to replace the existing power fleet — and they appear to prefer natural gas.
At the same time, over 1.2 GW of utility-scale battery projects are in development. That includes a 430-MW project from Tesla and Genera PR, a subsidiary of New York–based New Fortress Energy, which operates Puerto Rico’s legacy power plants. The companies plan to install Megapack systems at six aging facilities to improve grid stability, using $767 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and disaster recovery funds.
“While the Puerto Rico government has pushed new natural gas plants as a solution to the island’s reliability problems, the reality is that utility-scale storage can be installed on a much shorter timeframe,” Kunkel said.
