After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 I bought a solar panel kit. The kit had a 100 Watt solar panel (12 V), a charge controller, and cabling. I had already purchased a 1200 Watt inverter after Hurricane Irma, and pulled the battery from one of the cars. Later I replaced the battery with a 80 ampere hour deep-cycle sealed battery I sourced locally.

I set up the system like the 50 Watt kit the Maria Tech Brigade published. I can run the inverter for A/C, or use car chargers hooked straight to the 12V D/C battery.

The 100 Watt panel can keep a couple cellphones and computers charged all day, or run a couple of fans for a few hours. We're still getting 11 hours of daylight (we're only 18 degrees north of the equator), so one 100 Watt panel should be producing 50 or so ampere-hours. The kit I bought is expandable to 400 Watts (4 panels), so I plan to slowly grow the system.

I guess one good thing about Hurricane Maria is lots of people are looking and moving to solar power. The Maria Tech Brigade and others are helping demystify the technology, and prices keep getting lower.