Of course Elon, with Powerwalls you should bring solar panels
 

"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 PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR." Elon Musk.

Tesla and production partner, Panasonic will be making modules that will serve in solar farms and solar tiling systems. Tesla has the opportunity to lead and supply a massive solar initiative to rebuild PR with Tesla microgrids and replace their sole dependence on imported fossil-fuel supplies.

“This is really just the beginning, but I think what this serves as is a good example to the rest of the world of what can be done.” EM

Elon Musk Wants to Replace Puerto Rico's Power Grid With Solar

I see a problem.
Say everyone puts solar panels on their roofs, then they get hit by another cat 5 and most if not all the solar panels get destroyed? It's not a matter of if it will happen, only when.
Historically they get plowed by a cat 5 every 10 to 30 years.
Then they are dirt poor so the chances the can afford a proper cat 2 rated panel mount is further unlikely.

From what I have read of the situation, the solar panels survived, but the power from the grid didn't, and that stopped the solar panels from being used.

The same philosophy of building a better grid can be better applied to the thousands of new developments built every year many where hurricane and tornados seldom if ever happen. Problem is giving them away to new homeowners in middle class neighborhoods isn't as good a PR stunt, and on it you have to spend your own money on them they have to be a financially sound investment. Someday maybe. Maybe if they re-introduced homesteading and each plot had to be self sufficient people should put more effort into it and it wouldn't cost the government anything.

Problem is they don't rarely get hit by a hurricane, they get a little one every few years, it's been a regular occurrence since the end of the last ice age.

I'm talking about not putting them in P.R., but put them in Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, etc. Where they are building new developments also with no existing infrastructure. See PR stands for public relations as well as Puerto Rico.

Perhaps you're not, but he is?

Their solar roofing tiles are guaranteed for the life of the house or the end of Universe, whichever comes first. Sounds like a good test case to me.

I like the solar roofing tiles.
WI'll they work as advertised, I don't know but I would like to see.

The life of the house in a Category 5 isn't likely to be a fair test of the solar roof's long term reliability.

But it would be a good test of the warranty claims.

I deal with warranty claims all the time. Damaged ≠ defective.

Have you seen the test where they drop bowling balls on various roof materials?

For me, it comes down to the fastening to the substrate roof and the overall shape of the structure. The latter isn't a warranty issue, the former should be.

Sounds like an interesting opportunity to test the strenght of this system under such an extreme environmental condition, and to figure out how some eventual developments could be applied to increase its safety in a hurricane-prone area.

Skip to 17:19 to see the part about solar roofs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56862W24HK8
Looks like they haven't done squat with the solar roof tiles in 5 years, they planned more installs but the cost has exploded by an additional $70,000 per install.
This looks like a dead end. Any one waiting for solar roof tiles, just get regular solar panels.

I find the non-solar tiles interesting for their durability.

Cost-wise, were it my money, the winner is vertical panels sized to fit a standing seam metal roof.

www.remodelista.com: Remodeling 101: 15 Luxuries Worth Considering in Your Remodel

'Luxuries' one and two are a standing seam roof and solar panels (ten is acoustic insulation for bathrooms).

http://www.riverclack.com/media_new2...TOVOLTAICS.jpg
Standing Seam Metal Roofs, Photovoltaic Systems, Guarantees, Standards

Solar panels on top of a modern industrial type building like a hospital may have survived, but if the island was covered with panels on the wonky built standard housing, it wouldn't have survived. So maybe if they rebuild the entire community with modern Florida like codes maybe. But who's paying for that?

To me it make more sense to not put the resources for electric generation in the path of natural disaster. Building nuclear plants on the Japan coastline was a mistake. Building large scale solar panels in the common path of hurricanes is a mistake. So put the nuclear plants and the solar plants out in the desert. Wind plants on the northern plains. We need to power in the grid somewhere, it doesn't have to be local. Putting that generating equipment in the line of fire just seems like asking for it.

Get the power lines underground in PR and then they will be less susceptible to damage. Would have made recovery much quicker. Also they politicized the whole thing. The first contractor was hired and then fired before they even gave them a chance over politics starting the whole process over.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=origami+solar+panels

It's rocket science.

https://www.stem.org.uk/sites/defaul...ngles).pdf.jpg
hwww.stem.org.uk: The Mathematics of Satellite Design - Origami

Simplest design would be a WWII Quonset hut frame oriented East-West, with a standing seam solar roof from the ground to over the summit, with the North side up on a thermal mass wall with North view windows.

Until a few years ago I didn't know about Quonset huts, yet I noticed a lot of commercial buildings shared some of their features. Nowadays if I would have a house built from scratch, I would be quite inclined to have it built as a Quonset hut with some energy-efficiency and water-saving features added. Its structural strenght is what has led me to enjoy their design.

That isn't rocket science. I should know, but go ask some other rocket scientist. Just because it is on a structure named satellite don't make it one.

Works better that way.

I just use the aphorism because it came from a website on satellite design. In any case, the thought was that the added expense of a furling mechanism might be cost saving in the long run.