Elon Musk's Puerto Rico tweets spark hope of Tesla powering the island

After a suprise storm of tweets between Tesla billionaire CEO Elon Musk and Puerto Rico's governor, the hurricane-ravaged island could now be headed toward a solar-powered future.

It all started when Musk tweeted on Thursday that Tesla had the technology to rebuild Puerto Rico with a futuristic renewable power grid after its electrical infrastructure had been steamrolled by hurricanes Irma and Maria. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló responded that he wanted to speak to the billionaire about getting it done.

"Let's talk," Rosselló tweeted Thursday night. "Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project."

"I would be happy to talk," Musk said in response to Rosselló's tweet. "Hopefully, Tesla can be helpful."

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Musk also said Tesla would divert resources to its battery-producing Gigafactory in Nevada to meet the increased demand from Puerto Rico and its new all-electric Model 3 sedan, which entered into production this summer.

Earlier Thursday, Musk, also CEO of rocketry company SpaceX, detailed some of Tesla's experiences with island power grids and how they could be of value to the U.S. territory.

"The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico too," Musk said. "Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR."

Musk is right – Tesla has experience with these kinds of systems. The company has already constructed futuristic energy production and storage Powerpacks in American Samoa and Hawaii that include solar panels and enclosed batteries, reducing demand on traditional diesel-fueled grids that are common on islands.

In the case of Hawaii's Kaua’i Island, for example, the system is expected to reduce fossil fuel demands up to 50 percent by 2019.

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The California company is also targeting consumers with products such as the Powerwall and solar roof tiles that look and act like typical roofing, but can charge a Tesla-built battery connected to the home. The system can increase a home's reliance on renewables, feed power back into the grid and operate as a backup in the event of an outage.

FLORIDA TODAY reported last week that Tesla was targeting storm-ravaged islands of the Caribbean, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, in its plans to expand.

In the case of a hurricane-prone island like Puerto Rico, the "elasticity" of newer grids is hard to ignore, according to experts who said rebuilding the legacy system during this reconstruction phase is likely not the most efficient path forward. Experiences gained with new, renewable utilities – by Tesla or otherwise – could one day migrate to other parts of the world, too.

“I think entities like Tesla are going to be part of that story,” said Francis O'Sullivan, director of research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MIT Energy Initiative. “They should look to integrate today’s newer technologies and not simply rebuild the old system we had.”

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.