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Elon Musk Says Tesla Could Rebuild Puerto Rico's Power Grid With Batteries, Solar (electrek.co)
After Puerto Rico was hit by hurricane Maria, Tesla quickly started shipping hundreds of its Powerwall batteries there to try and get power back on to some houses with solar arrays. Now, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to say that Tesla could rebuild Puerto Rico's power grid with batteries and solar on a bigger scale. Electrek reports: 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."
Musk is referring to solar and battery projects that Tesla recently deployed on other islands, like Tesla's visually stunning Powerpack and solar project in Kauai. Those projects power grids for much smaller populations, but Musk has always said that it's scalable to support much larger islands, like Puerto Rico, and ultimately entire continents, which are just like big islands to a certain degree. The thing is that those systems are still reliant on power lines for larger communities and devices, like solar panels and wind turbines, that are still subject to problems with natural disasters. The advantage of Tesla's solution is that it has the potential to be distributed, which increases the odds of at least some systems staying online or bringing some back online quicker.
Musk is referring to solar and battery projects that Tesla recently deployed on other islands, like Tesla's visually stunning Powerpack and solar project in Kauai. Those projects power grids for much smaller populations, but Musk has always said that it's scalable to support much larger islands, like Puerto Rico, and ultimately entire continents, which are just like big islands to a certain degree. The thing is that those systems are still reliant on power lines for larger communities and devices, like solar panels and wind turbines, that are still subject to problems with natural disasters. The advantage of Tesla's solution is that it has the potential to be distributed, which increases the odds of at least some systems staying online or bringing some back online quicker.
Powerpacks are warrantied for 10 years, and it's not like they just suddenly "die" after that. Li-ions suffer their most capacity drop in their first year of operation / first 50-100 cycles, but the rate of loss declines after that. As an example with Teslas, the average capacity loss is 4% in the first year, but by year 5, typical total capacity loss averages only 6-7%.
"If there was an antonym to 'Elon Musk', it would be 'Richard Branson'."
"... If enough money can be found"
That's a bit of a problem. Not only was Puerto Rico broke and effectively in bankruptcy before Hurricane Maria, probably the brokest entity in the destitute island is the Puerto Rico power authority (prepa). It was $9B in debt BEFORE the power grid got ripped up.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
I...wouldn't exactly...want to be Puerto Rico trying to float the bonds required to build that shiny new infrastructure
So what are you saying? They should stick to trying to float the bonds required to rebuilt the old, crappy infrastructure that badly needed to be replaced?
Yes, money is an issue, but it's not like they have much choice about trying to raise it to rebuild. It's rebuild, go back to living without electricity or abandon the island.
Trouble is that, to paraphrase JM Keynes, the sun can not shine for longer than any practical, affordable, battery bank can hold out.
This has been untrue for some time now, especially in places where energy costs are high due to fuel being expensive. Practical batteries have existed for over a decade, and costs are now making them a cheaper option than fossil or nuclear.
Practically you would want some wind turbines instead of just solar, but building a suitable size/cost battery is not the issue now. The old major barrier is the need to rebuild the grid to be more suitable, and this disaster presents an opportunity to do that at no additional cost over what would be needed to go back to the old ways.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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