Tesla’s solar vision gets its first big test in Puerto Rico

[Guest Nicole]

It was a transaction concocted on Twitter — and in a few short weeks, declared official: Tesla is helping to bring power back to Puerto Rico.

Early this month, Elon Musk touted his company’s work building solar-plus-battery systems for small islands like Kauai in Hawaii and Ta’u in American Samoa. He suggested a similar setup could work for Puerto Rico. The U.S. territory’s governor, Ricardo Rosselló, tweeted that he was game. Musk replied quickly: “Hopefully, Tesla can be helpful.”

After earlier reports of the companyÂ’s batteries arriving at San JuanÂ’s port, Tesla announced today that it has started constructing its first microgrid installation, laying out a solar field and setting up its refrigerator-sized Powerpack batteries to supply electricity to a childrenÂ’s hospital in the Puerto Rican capital.

 

 

Read more: http://grist.org/article/tesla-and-solar-groups-put-puerto-rico-back-on-the-grid/