Tesla teams up with South Australia
ELON Musk just made an expensive wager: He will build the world’s largest lithium battery in just 100 days or he’ll pay for the whole project.
Musk’s electric car company Tesla announced on Friday that it won the bid to build the battery in the Australian state of South Australia in an agreement that includes Neoen, a French renewable energy provider, and the South Australian government.
The idea started back in March when Musk said Tesla could deliver an operational battery-powered system to the state and that he would begin the 100-day countdown once the official agreement was signed.
In September, South Australia suffered significant infrastructure damage after a storm caused a statewide blackout and left 1.7 million citizens without electricity. Further blackouts occurred earlier this year in the heat of the Australian summer.
Tesla’s 100MW/129MWh battery will partner with Neoen’s Hornsdale wind farm, which is north of South Australia, putting Australia at the centre of global energy storage technology according to BusinessInsider.
Musk, who was in South Australia for the announcement, said that the 100-day rule will be included in the official contract because “that’s what we publicly said we were going to do”.
Musk tweeted on Friday that the project is breaking new ground for renewable energy and that the battery will be three times as powerful as its nearest competitor: “This will be the highest power battery system in the world by a factor of 3. Australia rocks!!”
In a statement on its website, Tesla said the project should be completed by December and will be able to power more than 30,000 homes.