100 days to build the world’s largest battery

ELON MUSK has announced plans to build the world’s largest lithium ion battery in South Australia.

The billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla boss said the battery would be more than three times the size of the current record holder, speaking at a conference in Adelaide alongside Jay Weatherill, the state’s premier.

The battery will be 100 megawatts and will be able to hold around 129 megawatt hours of power, which Tesla estimates could run 30,000 homes.

“There is certainly some risk, because this will be the largest battery installation in the world by a significant margin,” said Mr Musk. “When you make something three times as big, does it still work as well? We think it will.” South Australia, home to two million people, has been plagued with energy problems, resulting in a statewide blackout in September last year amid one of the most severe storms for half a century. The battery is part of the state’s A$550m (£323m) energy plan.

In an attempt to stabilise the state’s energy, Tesla is teaming up with French energy company Neoen to build that battery within 100 days. If the pair don’t meet this target, Musk said the battery would be free for the state and cost Tesla around A$50m. “That’s what we said publicly, that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. The Tesla-built battery will work alongside a wind farm built by Neoen to provide power 24-hours a day when required in emergencies. The battery will charge when excess power is available and start working when the cost of producing energy is high.

“Battery storage is the future of our national energy market and the eyes of the world will be following our leadership in this space,” said Mr Weatherill.

Tesla has been expanding its battery arm, recently building a 80 megawatt hour grid-scale farm in California in three months.