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Elon Musk sends Powerwalls to Puerto Rico

Hundreds of Powerwall batteries are arriving in Puerto Rico. The island's entire electrical grid was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Engineers says it might take months to restart the electrical infrastructure. The battery banks could be standalone or support whatever makeshift system could be made operational. Tesla could also send some solar panels to supplement local grids. http://engt.co/2xEsUOU

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands should rebuild their grids and power them with 100% renewable energy. It's the only thing that makes sense. Micro grids with interconnects are robust and resilient.

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Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard (Post 551443)

Since the grids will require a major overhaul anyway, this sounds like the most appropriate solution. Anyway, maybe homeowners shouldn't be discouraged to fit their households with a solar panel or two and some of those vertical-axis wind generators.

They will do of good when the battery runs out.
Multi thousand dollar door stop.

Building it all back the way it was fits the classic definition of insanity; doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Buried power lines, aircrete domes that are super aerodynamic, kick-started Local Motors initiative, tidal power from the Moon. Plus everything else.

Quote:

They will do of good when the battery runs out.
Multi thousand dollar door stop.

The Mean Time Between Failure of a redundant array?

We the US taxpayers will pay for this. Puerto Rico is bankrupt.

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Originally Posted by me and my metro (Post 551602)

We the US taxpayers will pay for this. Puerto Rico is bankrupt.

You do realize that Puerto Ricans are US citizens, and taxpayers, just like the hurrican-hit US taxpayers in Texas and Florida?

Interesting times. They are building whole empty towns to test self driving cars. Why not use PR as a test case for how to build the infrastructure of the future.

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Originally Posted by oil pan 4 (Post 551453)

They will do of good when the battery runs out.
Multi thousand dollar door stop.

Quote:

OK doubters, most of the articles (including this one) don't really explain what is going on very well. You are right that sending a bunch of batteries to an island that has lost its grid wouldn't normally be of any real value; but that isn't what is happening here. There was a grid in Puerto Rico which was supplied by generators using heavy fuel oil, diesel, natural gas, coal solar and wind (in order of output); and naturally the power was much more expensive than mainland US power. The electricity authority was pretty much bankrupt too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto...ower_Authority So a lot of homes had grid tied rooftop solar which doesn't work if there is no grid frequency to synchronise to... What Tesla has done is to send a bunch of installers down to patch up the (damaged) rooftop solar systems and connect them into Powerwalls which will then operate in standalone mode.

I would say they'll just recharge them from the sun.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/puerto-ri...215045666.html

Quote:

Still, energy experts say the rebuilding effort offers a unique opportunity to outfit the island with the electric grid of the future: a state-of-the-art system built from scratch using renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which would be cheaper to operate and would respond better to the next hurricane.

The reimagined grid would rely on the concept of a microgrid, which are localized electric grids that allow communities to keep power even if centralized power plants are not functioning. Microgrids incorporate small-scale power plants—think small solar arrays, or a couple of wind turbines—as well as energy storage solutions like batteries to keep electricity flowing. Transmission lines can connect microgrids to the wider grid, but the link is not necessary.

Small pieces, loosely joined. Where have I heard that before?

Given the prior state of PR's electric grid, I'd bet there is a lot of bottled gas and kerosene lanterns.