Blog Tesla Restores Power To San Juan Children’s Hospital

Tesla shared photos today of its first solar and battery instillation in Puerto Rico at a children’s hospital in San Juan.

The company said the project at Hospital del Niño is the first of many going live to support the recovery of Puerto Rico following destruction caused by Hurricane Maria.

https://twitter.com/x/status/922840234143952899

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has pledged to work with officials to build microgrids using Tesla Energy solar panels and the company’s Powerpack battery system. The company has created similar microgrids around the world and Musk says “there is no scalability limit.”

Around 85% of Puerto Rico is still without power. Reconstruction of transmission lines and electrical infrastructure could take upwards of six months to complete before power can be fully returned to the island.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this month a decision to postpone the unveiling of its electric truck, Tesla Semi, to give more attention to helping restore power in Puerto Rico.

 

[swaltner]

I like how they're not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good in this installation. It looks like these panels are just ground mounted in the parking lot. While it would be better to not have lost all that parking, getting power restored to the hospital as quickly as possibly is a more pressing matter. Assuming this will be a permanent location, they could come back at a later time and build a roof canopy over the parking lot, moving the panels off the "ground" several months from now, restoring access to the parking lot. For now, this gets the system operational with as minimal effort as possible. This allows the crew to move to another job more quickly. Kudos to Tesla and I'm looking forward to many other similar installations.

 

[ecarfan]

This story has brightened my day, but obviously more importantly, what Tesla has done has made life much better for the patients at that hospital. I love the way they created a field of solar panels in a parking lot and brought in Powerpacks to power this facility. Go Tesla

 

[Bebop]

Literally...if someone reads this and is associated with Elon in any way. Please hug him for me. What he is doing is changing and saving lives in Puerto Rico.

 

[oktane]

No longer so much a fan of Tesla (due to shady business practices), but a fan of this! Great work. Excellent application of solar and Tesla's battery products.

 

[artsci]

Maybe this could be the first step toward powering all of Puerto Rico with solar. The grid is completely shot anyway, why not start from scratch with a green, sustainable system that's requires no fossil fuels?

This is another example of Elon and Tesla using its resources for the larger good.

 

[AZ Desert Driver]

Rebuilding a grid---installing multiple micro-grids, getting critical structures working, getting remote homes working...Lots of work to get done. I for sure cant second guess the decisions as to who gets fixed first, and who pays, and if the price paid is fair or hostage.
I do see the chance for the output of the Gigafactory to be consumed rapidly. Can they build packs anywhere near demand for them? Has anyone complained that this massive investment was foolhardy? No wonder my desire to buy one is as far away from fulfillment as getting my Model 3. And, I think there is a solar panel factory that is just ramping up - again just barely able to meet demand.
I think I'll buy some more TSLA stock. I can see nothing but upside for this company, bumps be damned.

 

[dave]

Does anyone know who's paying for this? Is this charity by Tesla? Paid for by the hospitals, government, or electric companies?

 

[MP3Mike]

Does anyone know who's paying for this? Is this charity by Tesla? Paid for by the hospitals, government, or electric companies?

I don't think that has been released. But maybe Tesla is doing it on a PPA, Power Purchase Agreement. If they sold power to the hospital at the same cost they would have paid the local utility Tesla should do pretty good on the deal. (Power is expensive there.)

 

[xav-]

That's a ton of solar panels.. just for a hospital. Just imagine what it's going to take to power the entire island

 

[MP3Mike]

That's a ton of solar panels.. just for a hospital. Just imagine what it's going to take to power the entire island

Well they have to collect enough power during the day to power the hospital all the way through the night. (Since there is no grid connection.)

And who knows they may be supplying some power to other local customers as well. (Though that is probably unlikely.)

 

[xav-]

Does anyone know who's paying for this? Is this charity by Tesla? Paid for by the hospitals, government, or electric companies?

Pretty sure it's you and me. Sounds to me we would be better off shipping tankers of cheap LNG and build a natural gas plant and stick to solar panels on residential roof tops

 

[mspohr]

Pretty sure it's you and me. Sounds to me we would be better off shipping tankers of cheap LNG and build a natural gas plant and stick to solar panels on residential roof tops

How long does it take to build a natural gas plant? ... and build transmission wires to connect to the hospital?
It took two weeks to build this solar plant.
Should also mention that LNG damages the environment... leading to more severe hurricanes... repeat disasters... not so cheap.

 

[thefortunes]

Pretty sure it's you and me. Sounds to me we would be better off shipping tankers of cheap LNG and build a natural gas plant and stick to solar panels on residential roof tops

Yep, cuz that can happen in 2 weeks. Sheesh.

 

[Bigtanuki]

I sure hope they have the firmware issue worked out for this install.

 

[PGSSeattle]

This is terrific news. I am so pleased that Tesla took the initiative to jump in and help. It is also a demonstration of the potential of panels/battery pack that will have applicability in other situations. Nice going!

 

[TheTalkingMule]

Wait til you see the math. I'm sure TSLA will be charging this hospital $.18/kWh while they used to pay double that to the utility.

 

[Electroman]

I am not really sure that is enough Solar panels to take care of all the needs of that hospital. Just the AC alone might consume that much power or more for a 20k sqft building in a tropical climate, and a typical hospital is probably more

 

[doug]

Assuming this will be a permanent location, they could come back at a later time and build a roof canopy over the parking lot

Agreed.

Here's a Google Maps image of the Hospital. It's smaller than I thought. The large structures in the background of some of the images belong to some separate athletics facility.

Google Maps

 

[Alco5229]

That's a ton of solar panels.. just for a hospital. Just imagine what it's going to take to power the entire island

Just remember the power load from a hospital the air conditioning load there given the high heat and humidity has got to be incredible by itself. Then add in the lighting for the parking lots and the buildings, elevators the specialized machines hospitals use. It is a lot of power now add in mold remediation if the hospital was without power for more than a week.

I for one wish there was a video showing the hospital staff which was probably the hospitals engineers and maintenance staff when Tesla turned the power back on.