Tesla Powerwalls and Solar Panels Sent to Puerto Rico
cleantechnica.com
cleantechnica.com
At least people won't have to wait for the PR electric grid, both the transmission and distribution systems, to be rebuilt. This should have a definite positive impact and hopefully save some lives.
Many places like large swaths of Africa and Asia skipped building much of the traditional landlines and went straight to cell phones.
With so much of the electric grid literally wiped out, wouldn't it be cool to see them rebuild in a more future-looking fashion with many of the ideas around solar & community batteries, rather than a traditional grid?
As I said, I know that's not terribly realistic...unless Elon wanted to have a laboratory and made some big donations to prove a point. It is the kind of thing he is known for, for reasons different than most people realize (unless you read that fascinating article about him from last year).
Interesting to discuss, anyway, so go for it.
I'd like to see a combination of both, a robust public T&D system with local distributed generation would be a great starting design in my opinion.
I think the trick is for people in areas hit by climate change to put these things in before rather than after the catastrophe, hopefully Peurto Rico can be better prepared for the next one. Powerwalls might become a key part of disaster recovery, if not the most important part.
You don't need to presume, it's stated in the article:
The company has employees on the ground to install them and is working with local organizations to identify locations.
Would love an answer on timeline when I placed my $ down months ago for my new roof... before you say I am an asshole...
I really am happy that they are doing this. I am big fan of Mr. Musk. and all of his vision and forward thinking. The idea that the human race has someone that has read The Culture and had the brains, money and ambition to try to sort for that helps give me faith that my children might have a good future. However would love to hear a bit more status updates from them for those that sign up and write checks. More communications would be rock star. The fact they did this came from HN and not feom Tesla saying hey guys... heck I would write a check for more if they setup a charity to help here.
Tesla still sells regular ol' solar panels, which is likely the product being deployed to Puerto Rico (not the tiles).