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Can Tesla's Batteries Power Puerto Rico? (electrek.co)
An anonymous reader quotes Electrek:
Almost 1 million ratepayers of the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority on the island of Puerto Rico were reportedly without power Wednesday during an island-wide blackout. But a few hundred locations with Tesla Energy storage systems were able to keep the lights on, according to CEO Elon Musk... Some of those locations include very critical services. For example, Tesla deployed a series of Powerpack systems on the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra for a sanitary sewer treatment plant, the Arcadia water pumping station, the Ciudad Dorada elderly community, the Susan Centeno hospital, and the Boys and Girls Club of Vieques. Furthermore, the automaker's energy division also deployed a solar+battery system at a hospital in Puerto Rico...
It was also reported that the Puerto Rican government was considering Tesla's plan for a series of microgrids to help bring back power on a larger scale. The government has confirmed that they "presented several projects in remote areas that would allow entire communities to be more independent" and they also "presented a proposal to the Authority for Public-Private Partnerships for the deployment of a large-scale battery system designed to help stabilize the entire Puerto Rico electricity network."
The proposal, involving de-centralized local solar farms, "should prove more resilient to natural disaster," Electrek reported earlier, adding " and of course, it would be a lot cleaner than their currently mostly fossil fuel-based power generation." Already Tesla batteries are "live and delivering power" at 662 locations, Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday.
Meanwhile, CNN reports that one Puerto Rico resident spent three weeks building his own solar power system using $7,500 in parts -- which will ultimately prove cheaper than the $350 a month he was spending to run a gas generator (and waiting as long as six hours in the long gas lines).
They're not revealing his name "because he's concerned someone may try to steal his new system."
It was also reported that the Puerto Rican government was considering Tesla's plan for a series of microgrids to help bring back power on a larger scale. The government has confirmed that they "presented several projects in remote areas that would allow entire communities to be more independent" and they also "presented a proposal to the Authority for Public-Private Partnerships for the deployment of a large-scale battery system designed to help stabilize the entire Puerto Rico electricity network."
The proposal, involving de-centralized local solar farms, "should prove more resilient to natural disaster," Electrek reported earlier, adding " and of course, it would be a lot cleaner than their currently mostly fossil fuel-based power generation." Already Tesla batteries are "live and delivering power" at 662 locations, Elon Musk tweeted Wednesday.
Meanwhile, CNN reports that one Puerto Rico resident spent three weeks building his own solar power system using $7,500 in parts -- which will ultimately prove cheaper than the $350 a month he was spending to run a gas generator (and waiting as long as six hours in the long gas lines).
They're not revealing his name "because he's concerned someone may try to steal his new system."
Of course they can't power Puerto Rico because they require generation in order to be charged. What they can do though is increase the resilience of the power system by making the frequent power disruptions less of a problem and reduce the cost of power by smoothing out the intermittent nature of less expensive solar and wind systems. Right now PR is heavily dependent on diesel and fuel oil power generation which is one of most expensive ways to generate electricity.
It would be good if some other companies got involved in most things that Tesla does.
They're not revealing his name "because he's concerned someone may try to steal his new system."
This is a common problem in the third world. Doesn't matter how much infrastructure one puts up. It's one's capacity to keep people from stealing it, that's important.
Ever try keeping a gas turbine plant running? Not so simple. Or cheap. Solar cell / battery plants are quite a bit easier to maintain than 30 foot tall jet engines.
Both do require access to high tech manufacturing and support but especially for a small island, solar / wind / battery combos seem to make quite a bit more sense than fossil fuel thermal plants. Right now, solar / wind / battery systems are equal priced to cheaper than thermal plants at the small sizes we're talking about in PV.
One of the big issues with power in PV is that the generation facilities are sited on the other side of the island from most of the the users. That requires expensive and fragile transmission lines (that still haven't been completely fixed). Small scale solar / wind /battery sited where the demand is makes a whole lot more sense than what they are doing now.
Putting a bunch of panels and batteries in a local field is quite a bit easier for locals to agree to than a brand new steam belching, noisy thermal plant.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Nice how they slipped in the "Public-Private Partnerships" bit so nobody seems to be calling attention to it. Where I come from (UK), they're used to extract/extort tax-payer money out of the public and funnel it into private pockets. Sounds like Puerto Rico is rapidly turning into Puerto Pobre and Bancos Ricos.
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