Can Tesla Rebuild Puerto Rico Power Grid? (Sí Se Puede)

Hurricane Irma and Maria have devastated Puerto Rico. Elon Musk offered to help, and in a few short weeks, they’ve already installed a new sustainable energy system for the Hospital del Niño in San Juan (that’s the children’s hospital). Elon called this the first of many solar + battery projects going live in Puerto Rico. // Get these updates https://teslanomics.co/join

This got me thinking, what if we wanted to rebuild all of Puerto Rico with these solar+battery combinations? What would it take, and would it last?

Today we’re going to take a look at what it would take to rebuild Puerto Rico with 100% solar and battery combinations from Tesla. 

First, let’s revisit how we got here...On Wednesday, Sept 20th Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico with 155mph winds and feet of rain pouring down leaving 3.4M Americans without power.

Maria was technically a category four storm but came just on the heels of the most potent hurricane in record history, hurricane Irma.

Hurricane Irma wasn’t the direct hit to the US Territory that Maria was. However, it left nearly 1M without power for almost two weeks. 

When Maria struck, it didn’t skirt around the island like hurricanes typically do; it cut straight across the middle of it.

Making things worse the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) had recently declared bankruptcy, losing 30% of its workforce since 2012. Aging infrastructure across the island makes the grid more susceptible to damage from storms; the median age of PREPA power plants is 44 years. Inadequate safety also plagues the company and local newspapers frequently describe poor maintenance and outdated controls.

All of these factors combined in the worst possible scenario for the 3.4M American’s living on the island, resulting in 100% power failure for the island.

Phone lines went down, generators kicked in while they still had diesel, and everyone did what they could to survive.
Even now, weeks after the disaster, many residents don’t have power, and all signs show that it will be months before the situation changes.

Tesla can make this happen for Puerto Rico. And they already are. But could they realistically convert the island over to 100% renewables using solar and batteries? 

Yes, they can. In fact, they’ve done it before, in Ta’u in American Samoa and recently Kauai Hawaii. The island of Ta’u story is special though...In Nov 2016 Tesla unveiled a project it completed in Ta’u. Their report sated

The island of Ta’u in American Samoa, located more than 4,000 miles from the West Coast of the United States, now hosts a solar power and battery storage-enabled microgrid that can supply nearly 100 percent of the island’s power needs from renewable energy. This provides a cost-saving alternative to diesel, removing the hazards of power intermittency and making outages a thing of the past.

This was a baby step but an important one to highlight what’s possible. The island of Ta’u is tiny compared to Puerto Rico. But the next time Tesla attempted this was for a bigger island. The Island of Kauai in Hawaii. The project in Kauai was more recent, just this past March of 2017, and doesn’t cover the entire island, but is a much more significant system, like they one they’d need in Puerto Rico. In the announcement about the Kauai project Tesla stated 

"To achieve a sustainable energy future the world needs reliable, renewable energy around the clock. The island of Kauai has an abundance of solar energy, but it can only be used when the sun is shining. Kauai burns millions of gallons of fossil fuels annually to produce energy at night. Until now. Tesla’s 52 MWh Tesla Powerpack and 13 MW solar farm will store solar energy produced during the day and deliver it to the grid during the evening hours to reduce a number of fossil fuels needed to meet energy demand. This dispatchable solar project represents the first time a utility contracted for a system of this scale that stores and delivers solar energy after sunset.”

They also just finished the install of the worlds largest battery installation in Southern Australia which is 129 MWh, nearly 2 and a half times as big as the Kauai system.

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Видео Can Tesla Rebuild Puerto Rico Power Grid? (Sí Se Puede) канала Ben Sullins