Tesla co-founder Elon Musk said that he is willing to work on the reconstruction of Puerto Rico’s energy grid, which was destroyed after Hurricane Maria hit the island.
It was through the Twitter social network that Tesla’s general manager and product architect, said they have already “done this for many smaller islands around the world, and that there is no limit to scalability, so it can totally be done for Puerto Rico as well. ”
However, he made it clear that “such a decision would be in the hands of Puerto Rico’s Government, of all interested commercial parties and, more importantly, of the people of the island.”
The company already sent hundreds of its PowerWall battery systems in order to minimize the lack of power on the island. These batteries use solar panels to recharge, so it works without the need of electrical power. This initiative is funded by Musk who donated $250,000 for reconstruction efforts in Puerto Rico.
The landfall of the hurricane in the island caused that most of the electrical lines were affected, which caused the interruption of 100% the service. According to official figures, 15 days after the hurricane hit, less than 10% of the island has power.
Given this, several experts indicate that the island has a unique opportunity to rethink and redesign the energy distribution and generation system. “This is an opportunity to completely transform the way electricity is generated in Puerto Rico, and the federal government should support this,” said Earther Judith Enck, the region’s former Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
