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Elon Musk: Tesla can build power grid for Puerto Rico
Posted on 10/5/17 at 11:03 pm
Posted on 10/5/17 at 11:03 pm
13
Posted on 10/5/17 at 11:04 pm to 225bred
Didn't he get a huge contact for something similar in Australia? Wind and solar seem like a good option for an island.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 5:41 am to 225bred
They need it repaired this century, Musk. Go back to losing money selling cars and missing production targets by over a year.
This post was edited on 10/6/17 at 5:43 am
Posted on 10/6/17 at 5:43 am to CCTider
quote:
Didn't he get a huge contact for something similar in Australia? Wind and solar seem like a good option for an island
Generator buoys maybe
Posted on 10/6/17 at 5:45 am to 225bred
He could probably afford to get them a couple dozen 1MW portable generators to run their power grid while they get right on fixing and upgrading their existing power grid with their own money and motivation
Done that yet Elon?
Done that yet Elon?
Posted on 10/6/17 at 6:56 am to 225bred
You think Elon summons any consideration after leaving the President's business council?
Posted on 10/6/17 at 6:58 am to 225bred
quote:
Elon Musk: Tesla can build power grid for Puerto Rico
Posted on 10/6/17 at 6:59 am to 225bred
He’s a con man
Posted on 10/6/17 at 6:59 am to 225bred
That would be hilarious
It'd be like Puerto Rico and not work
It'd be like Puerto Rico and not work
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:07 am to 225bred
Can he fund it, too?
Only relevant question, really...
Only relevant question, really...
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:22 am to CCTider
quote:
Didn't he get a huge contact for something similar in Australia? Wind and solar seem like a good option for an island.
Like a lot of guys here have noted, Musk is a con man, who specializes in feel good projects to suck off the government teat.
That said, to a not inconsiderable extent, conservative folks pooh pooh non-fossil energy sources too much.
Look, I'm an engineer. Without running on at the mouth too long, wind and any kind of tidal/ocean base energy extraction (thinking of things like OTEC) is a situational toy. Wind is actually useful in the Great Plains states or Texas. But not in most of America.
Solar however is a game changer. The solar cells are efficient enough and cheap enough now. And the juice is there, I mean it is really there. And it is availabale everywhere humans might actually want to live (though the "Long Nights" in extreme northern latitudes make it less so in some areas).
And I can tell you, we are good enough now with electricity transmission that we really could power lights in Miami with energy generated by windmills in North Dakota. Whether that is as cheap as a coal plant in Florida is another thing. But we could do it well enough that society wouldn't miss a beat or notice the extra expense - Except...
We suck at energy storage. Really suck at it. That problem ever gets resolved in a workable manner, and all kinds of changes will happen, almost overnight.
And things like wind energy fluctuate so much, and are intermittent like solar that they really aren't as useful as you would hope till we actually do get large scale grid storage, or cheap workable batteries for individual households that can take a few thousand charging cycles and won't break the bank to replace or install in the first place.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:23 am to 225bred
quote:
Tesla can build power grid for Puerto Rico
What have they delivered that is on time?
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:28 am to dewster
If Puerto Rico wishes to pay him to do so great, I wish him luck.
If Elon is expecting yet another federal government handout he can go frick himself with a rusty post hole digger.
If Elon is expecting yet another federal government handout he can go frick himself with a rusty post hole digger.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:30 am to CCTider
quote:
Wind seems like a good option for an island.
And say good by to the exotic bird population.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:47 am to cave canem
quote:
If Elon is expecting yet another federal government handout
He definitely is.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:56 am to Sunbeam
quote:
The solar cells are efficient enough and cheap enough now.
Bullshite.
Exactly what kind of engineer are you that you think the numbers for solar are even close to adding up?
Posted on 10/6/17 at 8:58 am to goofball
quote:He forecasts he can have a complete power grid built for PR by this time tomorrow.....
They need it repaired this century, Musk.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 9:02 am to LSURussian
quote:
He forecasts he can have a complete power grid built for PR by this time tomorrow.....
Unicorns can transmit large quantities of voltage from their horns to each other over long distances.
I can see how this time tomorrow is feasible.
Posted on 10/6/17 at 9:22 am to 225bred
I have a better idea.
Let's sell him the whole fricking island.
Or just give it to him. Make the muni bondholders take 50 cents on the dollar and retire the debt, declare PR an independent nation and give Musk deed to the entire property - and decree that everyone born there and still residing on the island as of 9/1/17 are no longer US citizens.
Best $35 billion we could ever spend. Sure, we'd have to deal with all the Puerto Ricans in the US (3/5 of everyone born there in the last century are living up here now) but we have to draw the line somewhere I suppose.
Let's sell him the whole fricking island.
Or just give it to him. Make the muni bondholders take 50 cents on the dollar and retire the debt, declare PR an independent nation and give Musk deed to the entire property - and decree that everyone born there and still residing on the island as of 9/1/17 are no longer US citizens.
Best $35 billion we could ever spend. Sure, we'd have to deal with all the Puerto Ricans in the US (3/5 of everyone born there in the last century are living up here now) but we have to draw the line somewhere I suppose.
This post was edited on 10/6/17 at 9:23 am
Posted on 10/6/17 at 9:25 am to cave canem
quote:
Exactly what kind of engineer are you that you think the numbers for solar are even close to adding up?
My god. Do you have the slightest idea of how much energy in the form of solar insolation is incident on earth?
The moon is responsible for tidal motion. But pretty much everything that moves on the face of the earth, from wind, to water currents, to little things like elephants, cows, and people wandering the face of the planet is due in the end to solar radiation (at a hella loss from primary energy along the way in some cases).
Geez. Earth circumference is about 22,000 miles at the equator. call earth diameter 7000 miles, so radius is roughly 3500 miles.
3500*5280 = 18,480,000 feet. Call it 1.8X10**7 feet.
Incident surface area of earth to solar insolation is Pi*(1.8X10**7)**2 square feet.
That is about 10X10**14 square feet. Call it 10**15 square feet.
Solar insolation at earth's surface is about 1 KW/M**2 (after atmospheric absorption). That is a honking lot of energy.
I might add that fossil fuels in the end trace their origin to solar energy as well. You might quibble and say that decay heat from radioactive elements in the earth's crust contributed slightly to the stored energy in fossil fuels, but this is minor. Very minor.
Now I could pull some numbers and list man's current energy usage, and calculate how much square area you need to generate that much with 18 or 20 percent efficient solar panels, but I got the feeling this board ain't interested.
And as I said, without effective energy storage it's not as useful as it could be. But the energy is definitely there.
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