By: Catalina de Onís
On September 20, 2017, Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico. Blasting theCaribbean archipelago with 155-mile/h winds, this, in many ways, unnatural disasterexposed the brutal consequences of energy colonialism and an extractivist economy, aswell as ongoing and increasing advocacy for decentralized solar infrastructure by manylocal residents and other renewables supporters. This paper argues that acknowledgingcolonial power relations and their consequences is essential for studying the interplayof energy systems, environments, and actors.