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Elon Musk can rebuild Puerto Rico power grid with his solar batteries

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Talk about turning lemon into lemonade, Elon Musk and Puerto Rico may partner to rebuild the entire destroyed infrastructure from Tesla batteries and solar power. That would be groundbreaking and can set the stage for even much larger transformation of electric utility industry.  I say go for it!

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/06/puerto-rico-governor-says-lets-talk-after-elon-musk-offers-to-solve-the-islands-power-crisis/

Puerto Rico’s power grid has been practically demolished in the wake of hurricane Maria. It now has a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebuild and the island’s governor Ricardo Rossello wants to have a chat with Elon Musk about his recent offer to use Tesla batteries and solar power for the the job.

joecavalryaarong
  1. Live Poll

    Should that be done?

    4 votes
    1. Yes, great project
      50.00%
    2. No, too risky or expensive
      50.00%
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  • joecavalryjoecavalry 430 Pts   -  
    Yes, would be a great trial run for Elon Musk to see if his solar panels can scale.
    love2debateagsr
    DebateIslander and a DebateIsland.com lover. 
  • love2debatelove2debate 186 Pts   -  
    If he can make that work then I question sustainability of utility companies. He can disrupt that entire industry and deliver energy much better and cheaper.  Guven the destruction of Puerto Rico infrastructure that would ne a good project to test feasibility 
    agsr
  • WakeWake 124 Pts   -  
    Do you people know that Musk builds RECHARGABLE batteries and not chemical power cells? So his batteries are simply worthless for the kinds of problems Puerto Rico has.

    If you look at the media coverage you will discover that the major reason that Puerto Rico is without power is because the power poles were often knocked over by the high velocity winds. What repairs are they making? They are putting up new poles to eventually be knocked over. Simple fix? Install underground waterproof power lines as can be fairly easily done.  These lines would come out of the ground and into power distribution boxes that are built above the worst expected flooding levels. These boxes would distribute the power to homes and would contain circuit breakers to stop the current flow to homes that flooded. This would allow very rapid repowering of hurricane damaged neighborhoods.

    Other problems were an almost total lack of a general road system built to withstand hurricanes. Since Puerto Rico is in the hurricane zones why hasn't this been a major priority?

    Instead we have a trash talking moron of a mayor telling us that Trump caused all the damage in Puerto Rico despite there being 10,000 containers in the shipyards with emergency supplies sent immediately by America. No roads to distribute the supplies, no trucks to deliver them and no drivers to drive the trucks.

    Liberals can kiss my Hillary Clinton.
    agsr
  • agsragsr 881 Pts   -  
    @Wake, agree on many of your comments.  Regarding rechargeable batteries, I would want to see his proposal. He was able to be the sole provider of electricity for some islands on a smaller scale, so lets not rule out his solar powered solution as part of their infrastructure
    Live Long and Prosper
  • CYDdhartaCYDdharta 1823 Pts   -  
    Wake said:

    If you look at the media coverage you will discover that the major reason that Puerto Rico is without power is because the power poles were often knocked over by the high velocity winds. What repairs are they making? They are putting up new poles to eventually be knocked over. Simple fix? Install underground waterproof power lines as can be fairly easily done.  These lines would come out of the ground and into power distribution boxes that are built above the worst expected flooding levels. These boxes would distribute the power to homes and would contain circuit breakers to stop the current flow to homes that flooded. This would allow very rapid repowering of hurricane damaged neighborhoods.
    Putting lines underground would help protect them from the elements, but it doesn't make them impervious, particularly to extremes like a hurricane with major flooding.  The down side is that its much much more difficult to fix problems in underground systems than it is to replace poles.  I used to work with utility crews; electric, gas, paving, surveying, etc.  Two electric crews (8 people) can finish a block in a day; putting in the poles, stringing the wire and tying it in.  It takes over a week for an 8 man digging crew to go a block.  If they hit rock it may take a lot longer.  You would probably end up with few power outages, but it would take much longer to restore power to the people who were without power. 
    agsr
  • WakeWake 124 Pts   -  
    @agsr - certainly but he hasn't yet and don't you think that this is a day late and a dollar short?

    People do not realize just how little power can be generated with solar cells. Let me give an illustration.

    Pacific Gas and Electricity by using federal subsidies and tax breaks has built a "solar and wind power" system that if it were ALL generating at it's full capacity it could provide 19% of the full demand of its entire customer base both private and commercial. That is a HUGE amount of power.

    The year before last was a drought year with almost perfect wind as well as little to no cloud cover. The most perfect conditions possible. How much power did they generate with their huge system? 3% of demand. In a normal year it would be 2% and in a rainy/cloudy year with either too high or too low winds would give 1% or less.

    Without the tax breaks and the ability to tell people that they have a huge renewable energy system they wouldn't have ANY of this. It will NEVER pay for itself. It is good only for advertising since a single coal fired plant would generate more energy than all of the renewable systems combined. Modern clean burning coal systems offer less pollution than it takes to construct, install and maintain PG&E's systems that are spread all over hell's creation.
  • agsragsr 881 Pts   -  
    @Wake, all valid, but...
    to perfect technology you have to challenge people to evolve it. Even if it becomes a part ofvthe solution it will help to evolve this technology and make it more efficient 
    Live Long and Prosper
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