Tesla to power Puerto Rico
As Puerto Rico experienced major, enduring power shortages and reconnecting the power grid will take at least another 24 hours, Tesla has jumped on the news to help expand the solar and battery grid on the island to become more self-sufficient.
Hospitals and banking centers will be prioritized as key locations. The power outage followed another major outage last week, which affected around 840,000 people.
Musk has since addressed the situation on twitter, stating that batteries had gone live and were delivered power to 622 locations. He added that his team was working around the clock to activate “several hundred more”.
Tesla batteries are currently live & delivering power at 662 locations in Puerto Rico. Team is working 24/7 to activate several hundred more. https://t.co/OMu8qKJvLy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2018
Since the hurricane hit about seven months ago, Puerto Rico has struggled to restore its power grid, which was devastated by the storm. Initially, the fallout had affected all of Puerto Rico’s 3.5 million residents, and amid rebuilding, Tesla had already shipped some of its Powerwall 2 batteries, as well as donating 250,000 dollars.
Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Rossello has expressed interest in being Tesla’s flagship project via twitter last year following the earthquake. Since then, Tesla has been busy installing photovoltaic panels and aims to eventually supply 40% of the nations power. The project has been estimated to cost around 9.5 billion dollars in materials alone.
This would not be the first time Musk has jumped in to help power a nation, as they are building a lithium-ion battery system to provide backup power to the nations energy grid and provide renewable energy, in combination with a wind farm provided by Neoen, to 30,000 homes in the region.
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