The morning after Hurricane Melissa tore
through Jamaica, Jennifer Hue, a retired tax auditor living close to hard-hit
Treasure Beach, woke up to devastation from 180 mph winds. There was water
everywhere.
But her roof was intact and so were the
solar panels she had installed two years ago. Most of her neighbors didn’t have
electricity. But she did.
“The wind was like a tornado, and water
came through every crevice (a small, narrow crack or space,
especially in the surface of rock/ a deep
line in an old person's face, or a deep fold in someone's body:),”
Hue said. “But we didn’t lose any solar panels, and the next morning, the sun
was shining bright and early,” she said. “We had our power back.”
A small but vibrant market for rooftop
solar panels in Jamaica has long been seen as a promising way to wean
(to cause a baby or young animal to stop feeding on its mother's milk and to
start eating other food, especially solid food, instead
給（嬰兒或動物幼崽）斷奶) the nation off imported fossil fuels.
The country is reliant (needing a particular thing or person in
order to continue, to work correctly, or to succeed依賴的，依靠的) on oil and gas from abroad for
its power plants, which not only is polluting but also makes Jamaica’s electricity
some of the priciest in the world per kilowatt-hour.
But now, solar power is also seen as a way
for Jamaica and other nations in one of the world’s most hurricane-prone (A hurricane-prone area is a coastal region susceptible to
hurricanes, such as the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Caribbean, and parts
of East Asia. These regions are defined by factors like high wind speeds in
storm-prone areas or vulnerability to storm surge, which is a major threat
during tropical cyclones.) regions to become more resilient(able to quickly return to its usual shape after being bent,
stretched, or pressed有彈性的；能復原的；有復原力的；適應性強的) to ever-intensifying(日益加劇的) storms.
Rooftop solar has grown significantly in
Jamaica over the past decade, from less than 1.4 megawatts in 2015 to nearly 65
megawatts in 2023, a significant amount for a small island, experts say.
The hope is that growth will start to cut
down on Jamaica’s dependence
on imported oil and liquefied
nature gas (Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane,
CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for
ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th
the volume of natural gas in the gaseous state at standard temperature and
pressure.), which is shipped in tankers to the island nation, at a time
when ports (a town by the sea or by a river
that has a harbour, or the harbour itself ), refineries, power plants
and transmission lines are becoming vulnerable(able to be
easily physically or mentally hurt, influenced, or attacked易受傷的；易受影響（或攻擊）的；脆弱的) to extreme weather
worsened by a warming planet.
Wide swaths (a long strip or large area especially of land長條區域，大塊區域;（尤指）長條田地，大塊田地) of the country remain without electricity after Hurricane Melissa
hit Jamaica as a Category 5 storm last week, killing at least 32 people and
destroying an untold number of buildings and homes.
The solar panels must survive the high
winds, of course. Jason Robinson, who runs Solar Buzz, an installer based in
Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, has been surveying the damage this past week, navigating
roads on the west side of the island strewed(to spread things
in an untidy way over a surface, or to be spread in an untidy way over a
surface撒，散佈;（在…上）布滿，撒滿) with downed trees and power
lines. “With nearly 200 mph winds, you’re in the universe’s hands(聽天由命),” Robinson
said.
But so far, none of his nearly 300 clients have reported extensive damage, he said. (Hiroko Tabuchi)
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