(somber music)
- The Hurricane Maria was devastating.
It took out the entire island
in every way imaginable.
There was no electricity.
There was no water.
There was no gasoline.
It was chaos.
It was utter chaos.
We can no longer rely on
large fossil fuel-burning power
plants distributing energy
and wires that are just gonna
get blown down every year.
We have all of this
power coming from the sun
that needs to be harnessed.
You can be completely off the grid.
I'm Jonathan Marvel, and I'm an architect.
(upbeat flamenco music)
I was born a few miles away in Hato Rey
in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
This is the neighborhood where I grew up
and got local fish from Cataño Bay.
I was a street kid.
Spanish was my first language.
Left Puerto Rico at the age of 18.
Graduated from college and university.
Started my architecture
career in New York City.
But for 30 years, I would
always come back to Puerto Rico
three or four times a year
and never really left
the island in spirit.
(somber music)
The idea to start
Resilient Power Puerto Rico
started a day or two
after the hurricane hit.
I was in New York at the time
watching what was going on,
immediately wanted to help.
What can we do with our
architecture design services,
our engineering services?
Community centers are very common,
so we thought let's start
powering up the community centers
with solar panels and batteries.
The beautiful thing about solar energy
is you can really run your operation,
whether it's a community
center or your house
or your hospital completely off the grid.
Two weeks after the hurricane,
we were able to put these
batteries and panels up
and within a five minute walking distance,
four or five thousand people
from this neighborhood
can get all those services
you need to survive.
Each of these centers can provide
refrigeration for insulin;
they can filter water; the lights are on,
but most of all, you can gather
around with other people;
you're not alone.
You have a place to
go-a place to get help.
When there's no hurricane,
these are places for education, resources,
afterschool activities,
mental health and hygiene,
and all sorts of social
services on a daily basis.
So far, we've powered
up 20 community centers:
5,000 people per community
center, that's 100,000 people.
(ethereal music)
Architects are big dreamers.
We love to think about the future.
We love to think about the possibilities.
Getting Puerto Rico to
be 100% renewable energy
is definitely obtainable
because it's a grassroots,
bottom-up energy system.
Helping other Puerto Ricans
is one of my most satisfying
accomplishments ever.
It's not just the feeling
of wow, we're helping people
get by in an emergency situation.
We're actually helping point
the future of the island
in the right direction.
