Puerto Rico’s fragile electricity grid was completely wiped out by Hurricane Maria last week, leaving the island of over 3 million residents without power.
Now Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks his company can come to the rescue.
The billionaire entrepreneur and clean energy champion said Thursday that his company’s solar power grid can provide a long-term solution to Puerto Rico.
‘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,’ Musk tweeted on Thursday.
‘Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC (public utility commission), any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR.’
Tesla CEO Elon Musk thinks his company can come to the rescue of Puerto Rico after the island’s fragile electricity grid was completely wiped out by Hurricane Maria last week
Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo Rossello, seen above in the center walking alongside President Donald Trump on the right and an unidentified figure on the left, seems receptive to Musk’s offer
Musk on Thursday proposed that Tesla install a solar panel grid that would enable Puerto Rico to move away from fossil fuel-powered electricity
Rossello tweeted to Musk: ‘Let’s talk. Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project.’
Musk’s company has already built solar panel farms (like the one above) in the Hawaiian island of Kauai
The panels absorb sunlight and convert it into electricity, where it is then stored in large-scale batteries like the ones seen above
It didn’t take long for the governor of Puerto Rico to respond positively to Musk’s tweet.
‘Let’s talk,’ Ricardo Rossello replied.
‘Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project.’
Tesla has already built a large-scale solar power grid which will be used to power the entire island of Kauai in Hawaii.
The company banded together with local utility officials to install nearly 55,000 solar panels that can generate 13 megawatts of solar energy.
Hurricane Maria left the entire island and its 3.4 million residents without power and destroyed 80 percent of its transmission and distribution infrastructure, according to the Department of Energy
Three men walk between downed power lines in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Luquillo, Puerto Rico on September 21
In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Tesla announced it was sending hundreds of batteries that can store power generated by solar panels to Puerto Rico to provide emergency help
Kids bike in an area without grid power or running water about two weeks after Hurricane Maria swept through the island on October 5, 2017 in San Isidro
Homes damaged by Hurricane Maria stand amid thousands of trees that have been exfoliated by Hurricane Maria on Thursday in Puerto Rico
A resident checks her cell phone on her rooftop at dusk in San Isidro, Puerto Rico on Thursday
Tesla also installed 272 large commercial batteries, the Powerpack 2, to store the energy so that it can be used at night.
The system was due to be turned on in phases. Once fully operational, the company expects Kauai to reduce fossil fuel use by 1.6 million gallons per year.
Musk’s clean energy brand is also powering similar projects on the island of Ta’u in American Samoa.
In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Tesla announced it was sending hundreds of batteries that can store power generated by solar panels to Puerto Rico to provide emergency help.
A company spokesperson did not say what Tesla’s future plans were.
Maria destroyed Puerto Rico’s antiquated and bankrupt electrical system, leaving millions in the dark and utility crews scrambling to help.
Now some politicians and renewable energy investors see a golden opportunity in the crisis to use federal funds to re-invent the US territory’s grid as a storm-resistant network that relies less on costly coal and oil imports and more on local wind, solar, and batteries.
In this screen grab made from video on Wednesday, scientists return to land from Cayo Santiago, known as Monkey Island, in Puerto Rico, one of the worldís most important sites for research into how primates think, socialize and evolve
Members of the U.S. Army 1st Special Forces Command deliver boxes of ready-to-eat meals and water up a makeshift ladder to people that were cut off after the bridge collapsed when Hurricane Maria swept through the island in Utuado, Puerto Rico
Resident Mariza Delgado stands on her property with her dog Vima in San Isidro on Thursday
The neighborhood of Utuado was cut off from help for about two weeks and there is still a need for basic life necessities after the category 4 hurricane passed through
Carlos Pesquera hugs U.S. Army 1st Special Force Command SFC Charles Fernandez after receiving food and water for the first time in the wake of the devastation left across the island by Hurricane Maria on Thursday
Residents Mercedes Flete and her daughter Nitza Flores hug in San Isidro, Puerto Rico on Thursday
If it happens, it could ease power bills on an island that struggles with the second-costliest electricity in the United States, behind Hawaii, as well as infrastructure prone to failing in the region’s frequent hurricanes.
‘We cannot waste the opportunity of this crisis and federal aid package,’ said Ramon Luis Nieves, a Puerto Rican politician in the Popular Democratic Party, who headed the island’s senate energy committee until his term expired in January.
‘We need to focus on not only getting the grid back up, but improving it so it can tolerate more renewable energy.’
A set of bills introduced this week by US Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon would call on the Department of Energy to make the US electric grid hardier against natural disasters, and would offer grants for small scale, grid connected solar and other projects.
A Wyden aide said Puerto Rico’s utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), could apply for such grants to modernize the grid, or get funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild and then apply for the grants to help pay for upgrades.
Efforts to reach a PREPA official were not successful.
That government support would be crucial. PREPA was $9 billion in debt before declaring bankruptcy in July. Its equipment was already ‘degraded and unsafe,’ according to a draft fiscal report the company filed in April.
Around half of Puerto Rico’s electricity is generated from imported fuel oil, with another third coming from natural gas, and much of the rest from coal, according to the Department of Energy.
Renewables supply about 2.4 percent, though the island has set a goal to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2035.
The prospect of a new grid in Puerto Rico has some renewable energy companies and investors interested.
Jeff Ciachurski, CEO of Greenbriar Capital, a renewable energy investor in Puerto Rico, California and Arizona, said government support could open up new opportunities for the sector to take over market share.
‘The federal government is in the driver’s seat,’ he said.
Sunnova, a residential solar installer with 10,000 customers in Puerto Rico, said it was working with the governor to try to restore power off-grid in the short-term, but said the destruction also creates an opportunity to create a new, renewable-friendly grid.
Vice President Mike Pence hands off a bundle of bath tissue as he helps load a container of supplies bound for Puerto Rico in Kissimmee, Florida on Thursday
Emma Perez, 9, left, and Summer Munoz,7, hand vice president Mike Pence a case of bottled water
‘Everybody can agree that what the future and the new power industry and system look like is not what was there before,’ John Berger, Sunnova CEO, told Reuters.
On Friday, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said his team is looking at alternative ways to bring power back on the island, including by using microgrids, small power networks that can work independently of the main grid.
Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator for Puerto Rico, said solar-powered microgrids, as well as buried power lines, could allow for a more rapid recovery after storms.
Hurricane Maria left the entire island and its 3.4 million residents without power and destroyed 80 percent of its transmission and distribution infrastructure, according to the Department of Energy.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been placed in charge of restoring power as quickly as possible, a key step to restoring other basic services like water, fuel, and food.