With the destroyed power grid on the island of Puerto Rico...

[Lee-Lee]

13. I think that the massive debt and mismanagement of the power company there will scare away anyone

who might have been the kind of person to otherwise come in an invest.

I was reading articles from before the hurricane about how the entire system was in horrible shape and billions in debt because the system gives away power to local governments and government agencies. You might think that's a good idea so police stations and the courthouse and such can operate with lower costs, and that was probably the intent. But the local governments have abused the crap out of it and caused the power company to go deep into debt.

Instead of just running their government offices from the free power they are running anything they can. One town put an outdoor ice skating ring up- in the tropics! Nobody does that because it costs an insane amount to power, but when your power is "free" it's all good. Another built a massive water park that gets all its power free. Lots of them but up buildings and then rent them to restaurants or stores with "free power" included in the rent.

It was a system only a half step from disaster before the hurricane, because there was so much debt and operating loss they were just barely keeping things going and only making and-aid repairs.

Nobody in the solar or other renewable game is going to want to touch that with a 10 foot pole until the problems in the agency and addressed.

Edited to add the link to the story I was reading now that I found it:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/business/dealbook/puerto-rico-power-authoritys-debt-is-rooted-in-free-electricity.html

The only hope of getting someone like Elon Musk in would be to dissolve the exist power company and hand him total control and power to do something new. But that would also delay getting power back on.