Tesla Turns Power Back On At Children's Hospital In Puerto Rico

[sl8]

Tesla Turns Power Back On At Children's Hospital In Puerto Rico
October 25, 2017 2:29 PM ET
BILL CHAPPELL

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/25/560045944/tesla-turns-power-back-on-at-childrens-hospital-in-puerto-rico?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews


Weeks after Tesla founder Elon Musk and Gov. Ricardo Rossello spoke about the tech company aiding Puerto Rico, Tesla says it has restored electricity to a children's hospital, using solar energy and batteries.
Tesla

Tesla has used its solar panels and batteries to restore reliable electricity at San Juan's Hospital del Niño (Children's Hospital), in what company founder Elon Musk calls "the first of many solar+battery Tesla projects going live in Puerto Rico."

The project came about after Puerto Rico was hit by two devastating and powerful hurricanes in September, and Musk reached out about Tesla helping.

Musk's company announced its success in getting the hospital's power working again less than three weeks after Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello tweeted on Oct. 6, "Great initial conversation with @elonmusk tonight. Teams are now talking; exploring opportunities."

Tesla's image of the project's solar array, in a parking lot next to the hospital, has been liked more than 84,000 times since it was posted to Instagram Tuesday.
...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good for Tesla and Elon Musk! n/t

[maddiemom]

19. Puerto Rico has provided the perfect opportunity to COMPLETELY remake their energy

needs in this way. Will it happen? Not likely, although this is a start.

[malaise]

2. Best story for the day

Rec

[DK504]

3. Thank you Elon, that is truly God's work.

This governor needs to be removed and have the mayor of San Juan elected. This guy is just sucking up to the Slug and hoping for scraps.

[brer cat]

4. Beautiful to see those panels in place.

K&R

[rurallib]

5. Puts his money where his priorities are

[democrank]

6. Really good news

Those children have suffered long enough.

[Skittles]

7. outstanding

[sheshe2]

8. Thank you Telsa and Elon Musk.

Bravo.

[AllyCat]

9. Amazing what can happen when people want to help

Instead of thinking ONLY how they can be enriched. This is beautiful.

[Hortensis]

10. Although I'm ashamed for my government, this is wonderful

to see. Obviously, one of the agencies under FEMA needs to stock systems like this. Most hospitals should have a usable parking lot somewhere around.

And this other wonderful contribution from Apple/Alphabet and AT&T, teaming to bring "cell towers in the sky" to Puerto Rico.

[Ilsa]

11. I expect the oil companies and other energy companies

to jump into the restoration of PR to try and stop them from going to renewables. Can't have them leading the way to the US discarding old, heavy carbon-footprint technologies in favor of clean renewables.

[n2doc]

17. It's not their way

Instead, they will have their minions in the Administration pass regulations limiting solar and wind power in PR. And steal as much of the money devoted to rebuilding as they can.

[EllieBC]

12. I'm glad and so thankful they did. But it's just what the GOP

wants. "Private" charity over government assistance, even in natural disasters and emergencies. They've been peddling that BS for years and now they are forcing it to happen. Let's not forget that.

[zipplewrath]

28. I agree, but

I know what you mean. The GOP loves to suggest that the government doesn't need to step in because some how the "private markets" will do this stuff. Generally they won't. At least not in some timely manner. Truth is the only reason that this happened is because the CEO initiated the whole schtick.

That said, I will say that people/companies need to understand that they don't actually have to ask permission from the government for this stuff. If one wants to help, go to the lowest authority level and start there. Work your way back up the authority chain. Tell the authority chain what you plan on doing and if they want to stop you, make them make the effort to stop you. It's roughly the "forgiveness is easier than permission" phenomenon. What I would truly hope for some day is that companies understand that they should be prepared to offer their assistance in advance. That they occasionally think about the situations in which they could help/be useful and prepare, in advance to do exactly that. It's not only the "right" thing to do, it also is a valuable form of "advertisement". It is also a valuable form of "demonstrating what you can do".

We saw a bit of that in Florida where ISP's with Wifi hotspots were prepared to open their networks to anyone during/after a disaster, free of charge. It was great advertising, it introduced people to their product that otherwise may never even considered it, and it made people think of them first once they actually started to think about the value of their product.

[mountain grammy]

13. That's a beautiful sight.

Right there.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Such a spectacular answer. Wonderful news. Thank you for this special information. n/t

[OxQQme]

15. Cell service

Alphabet’s Project Loon has officially deployed its LTE balloons to Puerto Rico, the team announced this afternoon. In a blog penned by Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth, the company says it’s working with the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Aviation Authority, FEMA, and other cellular spectrum and aviation authorities to bring connectivity to parts of the island still suffering in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Loon’s official LTE partner for the initiative is AT&T, which is helping Loon use its fleet of stratospheric helium balloons to bring functions like text messaging and minor web browsing access to Puerto Rico residents who have LTE-equipped smartphones.

“We’ve never deployed Project Loon connectivity from scratch at such a rapid pace, and we’re grateful for the support of AT&T and the many other partners and organizations that have made this possible,” Westgarth writes. “Thanks to the Pan-American and Puerto Rican governments’ aviation authorities and air traffic controllers, who enabled us to send small teams of balloons from our launch site in Nevada to Puerto Rico. Thanks also to SES Networks and Liberty Cablevision who helped quickly set up essential ground infrastructure so that the balloons could get internet connectivity.”

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/20/16512178/alphabet-project-loon-puerto-rico-lte-balloons-disaster-relief-connectivity

[Rhiannon12866]

16. Thanks so much for posting some good news!

We desperately need it and this is a wonderful story!

[Vinca]

18. Elon For President!

At long last a person who gets things done.

[LiberalLovinLug]

22. Such a difference in "successful businessman" compared to Trump

He's too busy actually contributing to positive progress in his businesses to run for office. Trump's business are about pandering to peoples addictions and rich man's leisure, casinos and golf courses.

I'm sure we'd find faults with him, but if there is an appetite to vote in billionaires, it would be refreshing to have an actual intelligent forward thinking billionaire such as Musk as President. Although it would remind me of some Phillip K Dick novel.

[orangecrush]

20. Bravo!

[bigbrother05]

21. This definitely points a way forward, but we need breakthroughs in batteries

Lithium ion technology is getting better, but the process of extracting useful lithium is costly and will likely be a limiting factor to large scale projects. The mineral processing techniques are a real hold up.

That reminds me of the stories about how at one time aluminum was more valuable than gold. Napoleon had aluminum cutlery that was used only on special occasions when he didn't want to use silver or gold. Later, science developed cheap, efficient methods to extract the metal from plentiful deposits and now it is a commodity of the masses.

Once a comparable method to extract lithium is found to utilize the available resources, Li ion battery prices will plummet and available storage capacity will soar.

Of course, alternate materials are likely to be found that have better characteristics and we'll surely see a similar scenario play out of higher initial costs followed by reductions from improvements and innovation.

Maybe gas stations will be replaced in the future by charge stations where you can swap out eight 10 lb. bricks to get another 300 miles of driving for $20 while you go to the bathroom and grab a coke and burrito. Can visualize the prices wars based on sources: cut rates during the sunny summer where solar is the prime supplier vs. bargains during blustery weather where wind is dominate.

[cp]

23. Now THAT'S solving a problem!

What our government used to do (and still does at the local level), solve problems together.

[haele]

24. It's great to see these advances and innovations actually used in practice...

But it's both embarrassing and sad for the U.S. that Puerto Rico is in the situation where it's become a prime candidate to be the beta test product for these private company innovations.

Why aren't we as a country set up to partner with these businesses to expand enough provide these common service and infrastructure improvements to us all, instead of depending on the 1960's business models and technology that are still pushed to the government by fat-cat vulture capitalists feeding off Taxp?
I can think of so many rural communities in the U.S. that can't afford to contract with Tesla or Alphabet to improve their own infrastructure, and almost as desperately need the help.

Haele

[smirkymonkey]

25. Great news!

[A HERETIC I AM]

26. Happy and proud to be a minor shareholder

Elon is just the kind of forward thinking person that can and will save humanity

[defacto7]

27. Now this is a role model.

[Wwcd]

29. Meanwhile Zinke's 2 man Co from Whitefish, MT are still loading up the pickup truck.

Just another Pay-to-play day in Trump's KKK world

[Fritz Walter]

30. That settles it!

I've been shopping for a couple of items to further reduce my carbon footprint on this troubled Earth:
1. A battery system to store the "surplus" kiloWatts that my rooftop solar PV system generates, as opposed to selling them back to the municipally-owned -- but fossil-fuel-controlled -- utility here in Jacksonville FL (who recently decided to drastically curtail "net metering" to please the Koch Bros and other suppliers); and
2. An electric vehicle that could be recharged with the above-mentioned solar-power-system without having to draw coal- or gas-fueled energy.

Oh, and then there's the back-up system for when Mother Nature decides to teach us humans who's really in charge, by throwing the occasional tropical storm or hurricane our way and taking down the entire -- and woefully antiquated -- electrical grid. The list of storm-related outages is much too long to list here - I hope you get the point by now.

I know that Tesla costs more than their competitors, but if price was the only determining factor, I'd buy a less-expensive car, battery system, etc. There's much to be said about corporate responsibility -- which seems to be sadly lacking in this current political climate!

Thank you for this clarifying moment!