When Scott Stapf read a story about Puerto Rico’s “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink how it gets electricity,” he had a thought: Could Elon Musk rebuild the country’s electricity system with independent solar and battery systems?
So, he posed the question on Twitter TWTR, +2.82% , probably not expecting to get an answer from the man himself.
But that’s exactly what he got:
As Musk says in his tweet, Tesla TSLA, +0.09% is familiar with what it takes, though on a smaller scale than the one desperately needed in Puerto Rico. Check out this video of how it works on the Samoan island of Ta’u, from the SolarCity blog:
Musk has already stepped up in a big way to do his part for Puerto Rico. After the hurricane left the island’s grid in shambles, Tesla reportedly sent hundreds of Powerwalls — battery systems designed to store energy — along with employees to install them in an effort to restore power.
Musk also donated $250,000 of his own money to the relief effort.