There’s no need to cry, mate. It’s official, the world’s largest battery is now in South Australia and it’s all thanks to Elon Musk. Tesla has won the bet
There’s no need to cry, mate. It’s official, the world’s largest battery is now in South Australia and it’s all thanks to Elon Musk.
Tesla has won the bet that it could deliver a 100-megawatt battery to South Australia within 100 days.
The bet arose from a Twitter conversation between Tesla founder Elon Musk and Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon Brookes.
The 100 days officially started counting down in September after Musk visited Adelaide to sign the deal with the state government.
The deadline was December 1 and Musk has made it with just a few days to spare.
According to Business Insider, Musk said that if he lost the bet it would have cost him “$50 million or more”.
At full charge, the battery will be able to power 8,000 homes for 24 hours or more than 30,000 houses for an hour in the event of a blackout.
South Australia suffered a major blackout last September which the Prime Minister later blamed on renewable energy, despite experts saying this was not the case. Turnbull clearly has an agenda and is a big fan of the oxymoronic “clean coal”.
But as Musk says, the problem with coal is that it has no future.
Musk really cares about Aussie electricity and got pretty teary about it in a recent interview with Channel 9’s 60 Minutes.
The giant battery is made up of an array of Tesla Powerpack batteries and has been installed in conjunction with Neoen’s wind farm in Jameston.
In the coming days, the battery is expected to undergo testing before they flip the switch on or before December 1st.
South Australia’s Premier has included the battery in his $550 million energy plan created to address concerns over the state’s grid and power prices.
“The world’s largest lithium-ion battery will be an important part of our energy mix,” Weatherill said .
“It sends the clearest message that South Australia will be a leader renewable energy with battery storage.”
With lots of space for batteries and plenty of sun for solar power, Australia is perfectly placed to be a world leader in renewable energy. But we need some of the dinosaurs in charge to understand this.
Treasurer Scott Morrison recently belittled Musk’s efforts, saying that 30,000 SA households “could not get through one episode of Australia’s Ninja Warrior ” with the Tesla battery.
That’s precisely the kind of ignorance we’re up against. I mean, who actually watches Australia’s Ninja Warrior?
