Elon Musk Pledged To Install 100MW Battery Farm In Australia

Elon Musk is making the world a better place one day at a time. Or 100 days in a row, if we’re talking about the latest pledge he’s made to Australia. Musk publicly promised to install a new 100MW battery farm in 100 days or less for Australians. If he failed to keep his word, the whole project would be free #todaymagic

South Australia’s alarming outages due to increasingly lower power supply has made Elon Musk come forward and give a solution to the nation’s problem. At first, Lyndon Rive, Tesla VP for energy products, discussed the idea of saving SA with a battery farm of 100-300 megawatt-hours of storage. Like Musk, Rive ensured its audience the company could take the project to completion in no more than 100 days. That amounts to a bit more than three months and while it seems like a short term for most of us, Tesla has proven its efficiency in South Carolina. There, they have installed an 80MW farm in just 90 days.

Elon Musk’ promise was made directly to Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brooks, who is also Atlassian CEO. Cannon-Brooks took interest in Tesla’s proposal and took the conversation to Twitter:

@mcannonbrookes Tesla will get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free. That serious enough for you?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10, 2017

The answer excited the businessman who later replied he needed just one week “to try sort politics and funding” and requested a cost. Musk gave it to him also on Twitter: “$250/kWh at the pack level for 100MWh+ systems. “ Sarah Hanson-Young, senator for South Australia, joined the dialogue and invited Musk to talk about his proposal.

By all means, this seems like a valid solution for Australians. Renewable energy could be South Australia’s way out after multiple coal generators were shut down in the state; in this scenario, Tesla’s batteries could help storage the alternative energy and use it later.