SAN JUAN,Puerto Rico–Tesla head Elon Musk has begun making good on his promise to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s hurricane ravaged electrical system.
Wednesday, reports confirmed that Musk’s firm set up solar panels and energy storage batteries at Hospital del Nino, a children’s hospital in San Juan.
The batteries, the company said, will provide energy from the panels when sunlight is scarce.
Earlier this month, Tesla said that it had shipped hundreds of its battery systems that can be paired with solar panels to the island to help restore power. The company’s employees were also in Puerto Rico to work on installing them in partnership with local organizations there.
In a tweet, Tesla said that this was the “first of many” such projects going live.
As part of his efforts, Musk has also reportedly donated $250,000 of his own money to support humanitarian efforts in Puerto Rico, where many people continue to remain without electricity.
Responding on Twitter, Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello thanked Tesla for its work at the hospital.
Meanwhile, Rossello, who faced criticism from U.S. lawmakers, defended a deal involving a $300 million contract to repair the power grid that was recently awarded to a small, two-year-old U.S. firm with just two employees.
He said Whitefish Energy Holdings, the company involved, was the only one that met Puerto Rico’s requirements at a low cost.
Known for its electric cars, Tesla has been expanding into the renewable energy sector. Last month, it installed a 100 megawatt set of its Powerpack batteries in Australia, which is the largest lithium-ion battery storage project in the world.
