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: 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.