Billionaire Elon Musk has popped up in some unexpected contexts online — regarding everything from his fantastically fierce meeting behavior to tangling with Rick and Morty — in recent days, but now he’s focusing on a much more vital subject. That is, Musk recognizes that Puerto Rico needs more help than President Trump tossing paper towels and obsessing over canned chicken in order to recover from Hurricane Maria’s destruction. So, Musk is offering to help rebuild the U.S. territory’s entire power grid.
How exactly does the Tesla founder plan to accomplish such a task? By way of solar power and batteries. Through the Tesla-incorporated SolarCity, Musk has embarked upon such endeavors in American Samoa, where the island of Ta’u can now store three days of energy in a solar grid. Musk tweeted that Tesla can bring the same results to Puerto Rico, but he’s leaving the decision up to the government and the people, of course:
“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. Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR.”
In response, the Puerto Rican government appears to be taking Musk’s statement seriously. Governor Ricardo Rossello tweeted, “Let’s talk.”
@elonMusk Let's talk. Do you want to show the world the power and scalability of your #TeslaTechnologies? PR could be that flagship project. https://t.co/McnHKwisqc
— Ricardo Rosselló (@ricardorossello) October 6, 2017
Musk and Rossello are actually expected to discuss the issue on Friday afternoon. The project would obviously take months to bring to fruition, but residents and businesses were already staring down four to six months without power following Hurricane Maria’s devastation. And with FEMA quietly removing electricity and water stats concerning Puerto Rico from its website, the U.S. territory can use all the help that Musk can offer.