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After Puerto Rico was hit by two hurricanes back to back in just a few weeks, along with other islands in the Caribbean, most of their power grid was completely destroyed. Tesla quickly started quietly shipping Powerwalls there to try to get power back on to some houses with solar arrays.
Now CEO Elon Musk says that Tesla could rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid with batteries and solar on a bigger scale.
Puerto Rico's electricity rates were already quite high at around $0.20 per kWh and reliant on fossil fuels.
After it was pointed out that Puerto Rico's destroyed grid is an opportunity to build a better one, Musk wrote on Twitter:
"The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit so it can be done for Puerto Rico too. Such a decision would be in the hands of the Puerto Rico government, PUC (Public Utilities Commission), any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of Puerto Rico."
Source: https://electrek.co/2017/10/05/elon-musk-tesla-rebuild-puerto-ricos-power-grid-batteries-solar/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by BK on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:08PM (1 child)
Puerto Rico's creditors...
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:36PM
And who supplies the parts in perpetuity?
Fuck off.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @03:53PM (7 children)
I thought Puerto Rico solar [twimg.com] wasn't doing so well.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:30PM (1 child)
Build the solar panels underground, so that hurricanes can't destroy them.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:22PM
Hey, don't you retards know what "touche" means?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:32PM (3 children)
There is an informative article here [theweatherjunkies.com]. The solar farm in the bottom images was apparently designed to survive a cat 5 storm and looks unscathed.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:53PM (2 children)
By looks unscathed you mean (according to your own link):
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:01PM
Maybe you should actually read it...
When GP said "The solar farm in the bottom images was apparently designed to survive a cat 5 storm and looks unscathed", I'm pretty sure he was referring to that update.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday October 09 2017, @08:24AM
Which is precisely what the GPP said, and exactly what the article linked to said.
Read for comprehension next time.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 09 2017, @04:41PM
thank you.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday October 08 2017, @04:57PM (4 children)
Yes, of course Tesla can do it. The question is, do they have manpower and materials available to do it NOW? No one without power wants to wait while contracts are written for panels, wires, etc ad nauseum, then wait for the components to be produced, then wait some more while those components are shipped to Puerto Rico. Inertia isn't changed overnight, and most certainly not in the middle of a disaster recovery effort. Individual companies, and the linemen on the job, want to get power restored, and the flow of revenue flowing again. None of those people want to wait three or six months while Tesla is setting things up, anymore than the customers.
(Score: 2) by leftover on Sunday October 08 2017, @05:54PM (3 children)
I think the point is that the old grid is effectively gone. Whatever replaces it will need to jump through all the hoops and delays. Might as well actually design the new grid before building it.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Entropy on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:30PM (1 child)
Except the power plants are just fine, so it's not all gone. You're going to need infrastructure to run power as some level of centralization is necessary for economics sake. If that's centralizing 3 houses to one battery pack and a solar farm, a neighborhood, or a large part of the island is the question but regardless you're going to need wires.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday October 08 2017, @09:10PM
Wait, this is Tesla. Shouldn't they be able to distribute that power wirelessly? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:07PM
Much of Puerto Rico's housing was non-standard lashups covered with tin roofs in typical Caribbean fashion.
The concept of building codes and storm proof housing, as well as building somewhere other than in flood plains never seems to have sunk in there. Its like this is the first such storm in living memory.
Nothing Musk can supply will be maintained. It may work this month for a short while. But without money or knowledge for maintenance, and with the "maybe tomorrow" attitude of the locals, it will be dead in a few months, jury-rigged to serve three neighbors, burned out and pilfered for parts.
You can plan all you want, but until you get the infrastructure out of the hands of the locals and under professional management with an adequate budget it will fall to wreckage and ruin the very next time the wind blows.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bradley13 on Sunday October 08 2017, @06:08PM (5 children)
This is just a stupid publicity stunt. Puerto Rico's power plants are just fine - it's the wires strung all over the island that need restrung or replaced. Tesla isn't in the business of string wires.
Even if Puerto Rico needed what Tesla is offering, this isn't the moment.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:05PM
You're right about this being a publicity stunt, and a pretty blatant one, on par with Trump throwing out paper towels.
Puerto Rico is a U.S. protectorate under typical Latin American corruption (it's why their economy and infrastructure suck to begin with). Nothing is going to happen fast there, except the rates will now go up to 30-40 cents. Best thing people can do is move up to the mainland and grab whatever government handouts they can.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @07:17PM (2 children)
BK, Frojack, and bradley13. I'm tempted to believe that somebody said something on conservative talk radio, and now it's up to the loyal foot soldiers to spread horseshit.
On the other hand, Runaway doesn't appear to be triggered, and he actually provides good points that Tesla would need to address before moving forward.
(Score: 2) by BK on Sunday October 08 2017, @09:24PM (1 child)
Since the only talk radio I regularly hear is WWDTM... wait, did I get hypnotized by Peter Sagal? !!
My situation aside, Puerto Rico's problems are grid problems (wires). All the power plants in the world are useless if they can't get it to homes and businesses.
Do YOU have anything to add?
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Sunday October 08 2017, @09:31PM
Except that the solar panels and batteries in household installations don't need grid to deliver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 08 2017, @10:38PM
Might be more like trying to get access to more govt handouts. Seems like Musk has done
pretty well at getting govt givaways -- as if he needs them ...
One example:
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-elon-musk-ingeniously-manipulated-7-states-into-competing-for-teslas-gigafactory-2014-11 [businessinsider.com]
Musk gives a dissent of this, but that is expected.