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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.
In other news Elon Musk doesn't understand being poor.
It's not about being easy, it's about being cost effective.
If you already have a lot invested in the equipment and infrastructure of using petroleum for your energy needs, it's a large financial outlay to invest in a whole new technology that you don't necessarily need (even if the long-term benefits are clear).
However, since Puerto Rico is now in the unfortunate position of having to rebuild much of their infrastructure anyway, and having to spend a ton of money to do so anyway, there's hardly any reason NOT to spend it on new technologies that save money in the long run... and also reduce dependence.
=Smidge=
Never let a disaster go to waste. $$$$$$$
Presumably because he's a busy man with at least three companies to run and he can't be made aware of and try to solve every possibly problem on earth.
But when large highly talked about events happen people tend to learn new information about them and act on it.
Because though their grid was in a shambles, it existed and was 'good enough' for the locals.
Now that it's effectively gone and they have to build something to replace it, it's a good time to look at options. There's not much cost savings in reusing the old grid.
Are the expensive power generation facilities destroyed? No.
Just the wires between houses need to be replaced.
Another hurricane will probably destroy Elon's solar and wind so they will have to start over.
The expensive power plants are still there, mostly paid for, and ready to be connected to the wires.
The wires between houses need to be constructed in either scenario.
Trouble is that, to paraphrase JM Keynes, the sun can not shine for longer than any practical, affordable, battery bank can hold out. For applications where you can't turn off the juice occasionally, you really need a nuclear/hydro/fossil fuel backup with wires connecting the generation to the users. And you need to pay to maintain that generation and distribution grid even if you don't use it all that often.
If you try to visualize a system using only wind/solar/waves and "batteries" -- as solar/wind advocates often do -- you'll end up with a system that doesn't always work. And by the time you've appended the stuff you need to make the lights come on reliably when folks throw their light switches, you're going to end up with very expensive electricity.
It's not that there aren't some applications, e.g. pumping water to "reservoirs", running air conditioning, where wind/solar can work fine today. It's that the high reliability and low costs US/Canadian electricity users are used to are VERY difficult to replicate with current "green" technology.
BTW - What's green about huge stacks of Lithium-ion batteries?
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
With Musks's batteries, the wires that need to be "reconnected" to the power generating facilities can be smaller - hence cheaper - because the batteries will take the local load during peak times, and recharge during off peak.
So, by distributing batteries accross the island, the grid can be smaller, and handle multiple sources, inclusive of oil, solar and wind.