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.

Comments

Maybe use with gens

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Maybe use with gens

[ShanghaiBill]

Would be better if Tesla would pay all the Puerto Rican truck drivers who are on strike and refuse to make deliveries of the thousands of containers of supplies until they are paid better.

This has been debunked as fake news. It didn't happen. Stop spreading lies.

Re:Maybe use with gens

[Rei]

Or just simply, Snopes:

Did Puerto Rico's Teamsters Union Go on Strike During Hurricane Maria Relief Efforts?
Reports that truck drivers are on strike in Puerto Rico are false -- Teamsters have asked mainland truckers to distribute supplies in the U.S. territory. ...

The Conservative Treehouse then went on to claim, again falsely, that the cause of this shortfall in truck drivers was a deliberate, coordinated strike action by the local Teamsters union. Similar claims were also made by the Gateway Pundit and entrepreneur Kambree Kawahine Koa.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters rejected these claims entirely, telling us the reports were “fake news” and adding that the Teamsters Local 901 in Puerto Rico was “doing everything but refuse to help” in relief efforts.

In a statement, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa called the reports “nothing but lies”: ...

Indeed, Colonel Michael Valle — one of the sources cited by the Conservative Treehouse — went on to tell the Huffington Post:

There should be zero blame on the drivers. They can’t get to work, the infrastructure is destroyed, they can’t get fuel themselves, and they can’t call us for help because there’s no communication.

...

A CNBC report cited in the Conservative Treehouse post also undermines the claim that there was a strike. As the reporter explains:

There are 3,000 cargo containers here at Crowley, one of the biggest shippers in Puerto RicoHere’s the problem – the truck drivers can’t get to the terminal to get their containers outYou’re looking at truck drivers who can’t be reached by their businesses by cell phone, they don’t have the gas to get to work, and then even when they do get to work, their semi-trucks don’t have fuel. The problem is the supply chain.

Etc, etc, etc.

Now, what you should be asking yourself right now is, "What sort of bullshit places have I been getting my information from that sold me on this story? What other bullshit have they sold me on over the years? What other bullshit do I currently believe that they sold me on?"

Re:Maybe use with gens

[Geoffrey.landis]

Solar panels are relatively light and cheap, and Puerto Rico has a lot of solar power. This is a good idea, a quick way to get usable power in place fast.

The storage is the tough part, and that's the part the powerwall is good for. There's already 88 MW of distributed solar and 127 MW of utility-scale solar available in Puerto Rico
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-solar-industry-wants-to-help-puerto-rico.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/10/01/tesla-powerwalls-solar-panels-sent-puerto-rico/

Re:Maybe use with gens

[ShanghaiBill]

one vocal mayor who couldn't be bothered to attend logistics meetings

That is Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of San Juan.

1. She criticized the Trump administration for its inefficiency.

2. Trump attacked her as incompetent.

3. Democrats and the media attacked Trump for picking on her.

4. Other mayors in PR said that she is indeed incompetent.

I don't know what happened after that because I ran out of popcorn.

Re: Maybe use with gens

[eriks]

It shouldn't be, really. Though in this case, snopes is *ABSOLUTELY CORRECT* that there is no strike by Puerto Rican truck drivers. Period. Anyone saying there is, is simply lying. There isn't a single shred of evidence anywhere that this "story" is true, and more to the point, the whole thing is absurd. There simply isn't enough fuel for the trucks, and in many cases, there are no longer roads to drive the trucks on.

We should be sending flotillas of ships and boats with supplies (water, food and medical supplies) anywhere along the coast where ships and supply boats can dock, or even using beaches where possible. The fact that there is not more help forthcoming from the mainland is a shame.

Re:Maybe use with gens

[Anonymous Coward]

Adults realize that 4 does not justify 2 even if it is true. She's the mayor of a disaster-stricken city. "Attacking" her now is wrong pretty much regardless of her "competence" in the end. It's sad that Trump can't just disagree, he has to bully and name-call like a child. It's also sad that this has gotten more airtime than any real information about the assistance effort. But it's cheaper to pontificate endlessly on how things look politically than to pay reporters to do legwork.

Re:Long term implications?

[Rei]

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.

Re:Just wondering

[Geoffrey.landis]

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.