On Thursday Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted that his company, which also owns SolarCity, had built miniature independent power networks, or microgrids, on smaller islands by pairing solar panels with its battery systems, and that "it can be done for Puerto Rico too."
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello responded on Twitter, saying: "Let's talk. Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project."
The island's electricity grid was devastated by Hurricane Maria, which knocked out power entirely. As of Thursday, only 11 percent of customers had the lights back on. Authorities have said it could be months before power is restored to most of the island.
The damage has prompted many renewable energy advocates to say the island's grid—which was almost entirely reliant on fossil fuels—should be built back greener and more resilient. They say that building a series of microgrids—which would tie together solar or wind generation and batteries—could be cheaper and faster than trying to rebuild a centralized system reliant on large, conventional power plants. Once in place, they say, the system would be more flexible, cheaper to run, and better able to withstand future storms.
New York has been promoting microgrids in the state for these reasons. Tesla has built such systems on Kauai in the state of Hawaii and on an island in American Samoa.
Read more at Elon Musk: Tesla Could Help Puerto Rico Go Solar with Microgrids
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