When Hurricane Dorian slammed into the northern Bahamas in 2019, the Category 5 storm caused nearly inestimable damage on a number of islands. Contact online >>
When Hurricane Dorian slammed into the northern Bahamas in 2019, the Category 5 storm caused nearly inestimable damage on a number of islands.
There''s a growing consensus among scientists that climate change is making hurricanes stronger and more destructive. That''s very bad news for the Bahamas, a string of more than seven hundred low-lying islands stretching from Florida nearly down to Cuba, in the heart of what''s come to be known as "Hurricane Alley."
When we visited in late 2019, hurricane recovery was really just beginning, but we discovered that the Bahamas had found a ray of hope - specifically, a solar array - that can survive future hurricanes. And in the process, it may have important lessons for the rest of the world.
With sustained winds of 185 miles per hour, gusts above 200, and a storm surge well over 20 feet in some spots,Dorian wreaked unimaginable havoc on the Bahamian islands known as the Abacos.
"There''s not enough words in the dictionary to describe what Hope Town looked like after that storm," Vernon Malone told correspondent Bill Whitaker.
Vernon''s son, Brian, had a home just around the corner. Hada home.
"That''s actually two and a half houses," Brian Malone said when Whitaker pointed out a pile of rubble. "Mine''s on the bottom."
Hope Town is a Bahamian landmark. Its candy-striped lighthouse dates to 1863 and is pictured on the country''s ten-dollar bill. The lighthouse stood up to Dorian, but as we saw coming into the harbor, not much else did.
"I hear generators everywhere," Whitaker said to Brian Malone and Matt Winslow, an American who owns a vacation home on the island. "Is this how you guys are getting through?"
Winslow told Whitaker why all those generators are still running.
"The substation in Marsh Harbor which feeds us the power''s destroyed," Winslow said. "And then, of course, you can see all the utility poles-- are pretty much destroyed. So this isn''t a case where you-- you come in and replace some poles, and you flick a switch. This is months, and months, and months of-- of work."
Hope Town is on one of several small islands ravaged by Dorian, which then moved across 7 miles of open water to Marsh Harbour, the largest town in the Abacos. At least 60 people died in Marsh Harbour, and destruction is still everywhere. Total damage and loss from Dorian is estimated at $3.4 billion.
"When you see the extent of the destruction, where do you even begin?" Whitaker asked Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis. "How do you even begin?"
"That''s always the question," Minnis said. "Where do we begin?"
"The power," Minnis said. "We had to make determination to set up micro-grids."
The microgrids Prime Minister Minnis is talking about are small-scale systems. More and more, they''re solar arrays with battery storage for when the sun''s not shining. They can either feed electricity into the larger grid or operate independently to power a single facility or a neighborhood. The way electricity hasbeen produced in the Bahamas is with diesel-fueled generating stations on each inhabited island, about 30 in all, feeding power to everyone through overhead lines.
"The main power plant for this island is literally 25 miles south of here, Chris Burgess said. "That''s 25 miles of line that has to be rebuilt."
Burgess and Justin Locke run the ''Islands Energy Program'' for an American non-profit called the Rocky Mountain Institute. They have solar projects throughout "Hurricane Alley." After Category 5 Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, they put microgrids on the roofs of ten schools. Maria also brushed St. Vincent, which has now installed its first microgrid. Now, the Islands Energy Program has come to Marsh Harbour.
That microgrid will satisfy 10% of Marsh Harbour''s total power needs, and will be built right between its government center and hospital, both of which were without power for weeks after Dorian.
The push to build storm-proof solar microgrids in the Bahamas began in 2017 after Hurricane Irma, another Category 5 storm, tore through tiny Ragged Island, at the southern tip of the island chain.
"After Ragged Island was devastated, I made a statement: Let us show the world what can be done," Prime Minister Minnis said. "We may be small, but we can set an example to the world."
Minnis said it''s his goal to make Ragged Island a green island.
"Absolutely. After which, we can expand it. We can expand it," Minnis said.
To see the prime minister''s green experiment, Whitaker flew to Ragged Island with Whitney Heastie, CEO of government-owned utility Bahamas Power and Light. Engineer Burlington Strachan met them there and took us to what he calls the very first hurricane-proof solar microgrid being installed in the Bahamas.
"Unlike other solar designs, it''s very low to the ground," Strachan said. "So this installation is rated to withstand 180 mile an hour winds."
"It was significant devastation on this island As you can see, some of the poles snapped right at the very base of the pole," Strachan said. "That happened throughout the island."
This microgrid will produce enough electricity for Ragged Island''s roughly 100 residents. The prime minister calls it a laboratory for the solar future. The past is a diesel generator needing boats to deliver fuel from hundreds of miles away, a system Whitney Heastie says is "a nightmare."
"You know, in summer we''re almost on the verge of running out of fuel in some of these islands, because bad weather sometimes prohibits the ships from actually getting to some of these locations," Heastie said.
The Bahamian government spends nearly $400 million a year on imported fuel to keep its power plants running and passes that cost along to its citizens. They pay three to four times what people in the mainland U.S. pay for electricity.
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