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Tesla Is Shipping Hundreds of Powerwall Batteries To Puerto Rico (futurism.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from Futurism: In a continued streak of goodwill during this year's devastating hurricane season, Tesla has been shipping hundreds of its Powerwall batteries to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Since the hurricane hit on 20 September, much of the U.S. territory has been left without power -- about 97 percent, as of 27 September -- hampering residents' access to drinkable water, perishable food, and air conditioning. The island's hospitals are struggling to keep generators running as diesel fuel dwindles. Installed by employees in Puerto Rico, Tesla's batteries could be paired with solar panels in order to store electricity for the territory, whose energy grid may need up to six months to be fully repaired. Several power banks have already arrived to the island, and more are en route.
It will be hard to set up enough solar panels quickly to charge powerwalls, but in the meantime they could be charged at locations with power or generators, then moved to points of use. A small generator charging a battery can often be as useful as a larger generator.
...winning the Powerball is more likely to happen than getting assistance from the Trump Administration.
Except that, ya know, the Trump administration IS helping Puerto Rico, albeit it slowly at first. I don't like Trump either but you can't just make stuff up. I believe Mr. Trump himself even coined a two-word term for this kind of bullshit.
Experts from Germany (Sonnen GmbH) are coordinating and doing install on this project:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
Trump meanwhile did helpfully dedicate a golf trophy in honor of Puerto Rico:
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
In case you didn't know, Puerto Rico is an AMERICAN territory - the people of that territory are American citizens. But our current government for some reason is unwilling/unable to help, and is only much later getting assistance from those who ARE willing/able to help.
Not that I'm just blaming conservatives here - Bill Clinton was the one that signed the bill that removed the tax benefits that attracted a large percent of business to Puerto Rico, leaving their economy 70 billion dollars in debt once it was phased out.
But it DOES take a 'modern conservative' approach to be so completely uncaring/unable to help in this kind of recovery after a disaster.
Though I suppose hospitals probably need more power than these could provide
The Powerwalls can be used for load leveling. If a hospital has a 10kw generator and has power needs that fluctuate between 6kw and 12kw, then that is not going to work. But stick in a Powerwall, and it can recharge from the generator when the demand is at 6kw, and supply supplement power to handle the peaks.
Isn't it true that the Electric Utility in Puerto Rico is Owned and Operated by the government?
;)
Is that maybe why, The Electric Utility is having money problems, The Electric Grid was sub par, The disaster Planning was sub par and the fact that the Electric Utility is so totally unprepared to restore the Electric Grid?
My point being, it is to late now to do anything now. So lets not relive the past. But, maybe the Electric Utility should be privatized. There isn't much left and this mightl expedite the rebuilding process. And hopefully put the Electric Utility on firmer footing. That could be more prepared for the future storms to come.
So come on Tesla, Somebody? step up make the future better
1) They recharge every day, providing day/night load shifting, both for power plants and transmission lines (aka, preventing daytime brownouts when demand exceeds capacity).
2) Loadshifting benefits every major source of power, not just solar (and, as mentioned, it benefits transmission lines as well)
3) They're about the size of a breaker box, but 125kg. Any competent electrician can wire one. They're all-in-one systems with the inverter included. You do not "disconnect them to charge", they're not designed to "carry" power around.
4) They're warrantied for 10 years. And they don't just die when the warranty expires. Nor are they "hazardous environmental waste"; it's lithium ion, not nickel-cadmium or lead-acid. The contents therein, particularly the cobalt in the cathodes, are high demand feedstocks.
"If there was an antonym to 'Elon Musk', it would be 'Richard Branson'."
The problem is that Puerto Rico currently does not have any transmission lines, and so load leveling the power plants that aren't connected to anything is not useful.
Significant percentages of the island are going to be relying on local power generation for months, and you can get a lot more out of a generator and limited amount of fuel when you've got solar panels and battery backs to back them up.
How will these Powerwall units be recharged after they have been used up on the first go around?
From solar panels.
The electricity infrastructure is going to be down for quite a while, as the power plants and transmission lines have to be replaced.
Yes, that's exactly why you want the solar panels and battery storage.
Whilst solar panels sound like a good idea, how will you install PV when the vast majority of buildings are wrecked, and building materiel is going to be prioritised for reconstruction of homes and public structures?
I would think that setting up solar panels to provide emergency power would have a high priority. Setting up solar panels (or, repairing some of the installations that already exist on the island) is going to be very quick compared to reconstructing a demolished building; devoting a day or so to restoring the power grid is not going to delay the months-to-years long process of rebuilding the island.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-solar-industry-wants-to-help-puerto-rico.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Exactly. Hospitals, nursing homes, distribution centers, shelters, schools, etc. Lots of great places to have electricity!
Though I suppose hospitals probably need more power than these could provide, and probably are getting priority for generators and diesel.
A diesel generator that can power an entire hospital is surprisingly small. I visited a generation site that used a natgas powered turbine to generate electricity and steam heat last year, and they had a diesel backup generator that generated the same amount of power - no steam - and it fit in a building that was maybe 20 by 20 feet. Very small anyhow. Fortunately it was seldom used, as deisel electricity is about as expensive as you can get.
What I think is weird is these Il Duce II apologists who seem to think that the situation there is something the American Military can't cope with.
Kryste, we put Japan back together after WW2.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Cobalt is not "100% carcinogenic". First off, "100% carcinogenic" isn't even a meaningful term. Secondly, cobalt is an essential nutrient in small quantities; the "cobal-" in "cobalamin" (aka, vitamin B12) is cobalt. In higher quantities it's poisonous, although not to the extent of normal "toxic" metals like cadmium and lead; in particular, cobalt is mostly inert when not as a dust or soluble salt. And if it's carcinogenic at all, it's at a level that's so low that it's tough to make out among the effects of other metals. Nor is "toxicity" a reason for avoiding cobalt-alloy drill bits (stainless steel is much worse due to its chromium content). Nor have cobalt-alloy drill bits "gone away"; google them, you can get them all over the bloody place.
And you're also wrong about tungsten. It is indeed toxic, but not as much as DU.
"If there was an antonym to 'Elon Musk', it would be 'Richard Branson'."