Solar Panels Help Jamaican Communities Stay Powered After Hurricane Melissa

When Hurricane Melissa roared across the island last week, it left a trail of downed power lines and blacked‑out neighborhoods. Yet in several coastal towns and hillside villages, the lights stayed on. The secret? A rapid surge in rooftop solar installations that has turned ordinary homes into miniature power stations.The Category 4 storm knocked out the national grid for more than 48 hours in parts of St. James, Manchester and the eastern parish of Portland. Utility crews were forced to work around the clock to restore electricity, but many residents never experienced a total outage. In the small community of Greenvale, where roughly 30 percent of households have solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, the panels continued to feed electricity directly to homes even after the main lines were severed.“Because we have panels on our roof, the lights never went out,” said Marlon Clarke, a 42‑year‑old electrician who installed a 3‑kilowatt system on his house three years ago. “It’s not just my house—our whole street stayed lit, and the kids could keep studying after dark.”Clarke’s experience mirrors that of dozens of Jamaicans who have embraced rooftop solar over the past five years. According to the Jamaica Solar Energy Association (JSEA), the number of residential PV installations has jumped from about 1,200 in 2019 to more than 7,500 by the end of 2024, a growth rate of roughly 525 % driven by falling panel costs, generous tax incentives and a nationwide push to diversify the energy mix.The benefits of this “distributed generation” became starkly evident when Melissa’s fierce winds ripped through the island’s aging transmission infrastructure. While the central grid faltered, solar‑equipped homes switched automatically to “island mode,” using stored energy from battery backups or, when sunlight was available, feeding power straight from the panels. In neighborhoods where only a handful of houses had PV, the effect was limited to those individual homes. In contrast, in clusters where many rooftops were equipped, the combined output was enough to keep streetlights, small businesses and community centers running.“We saw a real community‑wide resilience boost,” explained Dr. Anita Bell, a renewable‑energy researcher at the University of the West Indies. “When a critical mass of households generate their own electricity, they can share excess power through informal micro‑grids, reducing reliance on the main grid during emergencies.”Indeed, in the town of Port Maria, a local bakery that installed a 5‑kilowatt system with a battery bank was able to keep its ovens humming throughout the storm, providing fresh bread to residents who were otherwise stuck without supplies. The bakery’s owner, Lila Grant, said the solar setup “saved my business and helped feed the neighborhood when the power was out elsewhere.”The government has taken note. In the wake of Melissa, the Ministry of Energy and Mining announced an accelerated rollout of a new incentive program that will subsidize battery storage for existing solar customers and offer low‑interest loans for new installations. Minister of Energy, Hon. Robert Rodriguez, stated, “We must turn this crisis into a catalyst for a greener, more resilient Jamaica. Expanding rooftop solar and storage is a cornerstone of that vision.”While the storm highlighted the advantages of decentralized power, experts caution that solar alone cannot solve all grid reliability issues. “We need a balanced approach that includes wind, hydro and upgrades to the transmission network,” said Bell. “But the Melissa experience proves that rooftop solar is a vital piece of the puzzle, especially for island nations vulnerable to extreme weather.”For homeowners like Marlon Clarke, the recent ordeal has reinforced a belief that many Jamaicans are already sharing. “We invested in solar for lower bills and a cleaner environment,” he said, “but now we see it’s also about protecting our families and our community when nature throws a curveball.”