Elon Musk follows through with solar power at Puerto Rico hospital

Billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk has kept his recent promise to help Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, cutting the power. His company, Tesla, has recently installed solar panels and the necessary energy storage batteries at a children’s hospital in San Juan, with several other projects ongoing for other hospitals on the island.

Tesla installs solar power at Puerto Rico children’s hospital

According to a report by the BBC, the solar panels will provide electricity to the Hospital del Nino in San Juan, while the batteries will store energy for use during cloudier weather. After the hospital project went live, Tesla headed to Twitter to confirm the installation at the children’s hospital is the first of many planned projects for Puerto Rico.

Musk had previously donated $250,000 of his own cash in an effort to aid humanitarian efforts on the devastated island, where many residents still lack power after Hurricane Maria. Earlier in October, Tesla offered on Twitter to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s energy infrastructure.

Ricardo Rossello, governor of the U.S. territory, prompted responded, telling Tesla, “Let’s talk.”

And talk they did, after which Rossello has now thanked Tesla for providing power to the children’s hospital. His tweet, included in Spanish below, translates to read, “Grateful for this humanitarian action that will help provide better service to the Children's Hospital.”

Controversy over repairs to Puerto Rico power grid

As to the rest of Puerto Rico’s power problems and as reported by CNN, a small Montana firm won a $300 million contract to fix the devastated power grid, leading to some controversy. As Whitefish Energy Holdings only had two employees, U.S. lawmakers made noise over the issue. However, Rossello defended the contract saying the firm was the only one able to meet the island’s requirements at a low enough cost.

Ricardo Ramos, executive director of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, said in a press statement they also chose Whitefish, as the firm did not require a large upfront deposit. Ramos added that the only other contender for the project had asked a $25 million down payment before starting work, while Whitefish required no such guarantee.

However since they won the contract, Whitefish has already increased its number of employees to 300, with another 700 more to head to Puerto Rico. CNN reports that rapid growth of this nature is typical when utility firms win large contracts of this nature.