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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
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: 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.