Elon Musk and Richard Branson want to bring

Elon Musk and Richard Branson want to bring clean energy to Puerto Rico. It won’t be easy.

Elon Musk and Richard Branson want to bring clean energy to Puerto Rico. It won’t be easy. • Umair Irfan • Long before Hurricane Maria ripped into Puerto Rico on September 20, it was clear that one of the island’s greatest vulnerabilities was its decrepit, sagging power system almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels. Under the brute force of the Category 4 storm, the aging and poorly maintained power plants and transmission lines sustained such significant damage that nearly a month later, power has only been restored to 21 percent of the island. • While relief staff on the ground are struggling to restore the system as quickly as possible, to some lawmakers, environmental activists, and billionaires, the failure of Puerto Rico’s power infrastructure presents a kind of tabula rasa. They see solar energy as the way out of darkness, with dreams of channeling light into electricity across small, closed-loop transmission systems called microgrids and backing them up with batteries to keep the power on all night. A Puerto Rico transformed into an archipelago of microgrids would also in theory better stand up to storms and provide cheaper energy. • Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who weathered Hurricanes Irma and Maria on his private island in the British Virgin Islands with its own renewable energy-powered microgrid, is launching a green energy fund to rebuild the Caribbean with wind and solar power. • Tesla CEO Elon Musk has broached restoring power using solar power and batteries with Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, who said he is open to the possibility. • Meanwhile, companies like Tesla, Duracell, and German energy storage firm Sonnen are already sending battery and solar supplies to Puerto Rico, building a toe-hold in what may be a lucrative rebuilding project. Solar power companies like Sun. Run and Vivint Solar are also joining the relief effort, pledging to bring hardware to the US territory.

Elon Musk and Richard Branson want to bring clean energy to Puerto Rico. It won’t be easy. • And earlier this month, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, suggested microgrids and distributed energy resources could be installed to help protect the island against future outages. • There’s no doubt that the technology to reliably power most of Puerto Rico with distributed renewables exists. • But refashioning Puerto Rico’s grid is not a question of technology. Rather, the dire state of the territory’s finances poses a significant obstacle to new investment in its energy infrastructure. Ultimately, building a greener, more resilient, independent grid rests on whethere is enough money and political will to see the vision through. • https: //www. vox. com/energy-and-environment/2017/10/19/16431312/elon-musk-richard-branson-clean -energy-puerto-rico-solar-batteries-microgrid

Question Discuss the new energy plan suggested by Elon Musk Richard Branson citing evidence from the article.