Thumbs Up! Ready to Go!

To say the last six months has been a whirlwind would be a comic understatement. The ground has been shifting in many ways. But you know what? We've been finding our footing and pressing forward -- supported by fantastic partners and a phenomenal team.

Just look at this great thumbs up from Omelia, grid ambassador in Tiburon, this week. She's on site at the solar generation land to welcome engineers and builders from Green Energy Solutions and GENINOV, two companies working together with EarthSpark to repair and expand the microgrid solar generation system in Tiburon, Haiti this month. 

And that's not all. The Haitian Ministry of Public Works has been working with the EarthSpark team to hold kick off meetings with mayors from the six towns where we are preparing to build new grids. The careful orchestration across local and international engineering teams, municipal and national government representatives, public and private sector participants is happening in person, in virtual conference rooms, and over dozens of WhatsApp channels and official documents. Sometimes the power goes out and communication drops. Sometimes all air travel is cancelled and roads are impassible. But everybody adapts, and together we make progress.

Not all the news is good. Security in much of Haiti continues to deteriorate. EarthSpark lost a critical $250,000 in USAID funding which we are currently scrambling to somehow replace. Our exciting but nascent work in Puerto Rico has seen the termination of an EPA Community Change Grant to our local partner which was to support, among other things, the development of a much needed solar+battery microgrid in a vulnerable community in Puerto Rico.

But look at these "ground screws" that are going to support new solar panels in Tiburon! They're taller than Jean, our director of microgrid operations! These screws will be used to anchor the expanded solar array to the ground in Tiburon as we relaunch service there -- a full recovery with a bigger and better grid after the container fire disrupted service nearly a year and a half ago.

In a complex world, we know that local, renewable energy systems deliver outsized benefits to communities, and we are thrilled to be expanding in Tiburon and breaking ground on new grids across the region. We will continue to share updates here as we make progress toward energizing new towns in the coming weeks!