Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla Motors and inventor of the Hyperloop, promises South Australia to fix its power grid in just 100 days or else he will provide the system for free.
Since September, the Australian state of South Australia has suffered a series of power outages that have sparked a fierce political debate over the state’s reliance on renewable energy. Cuts are recurrent there, but the problem has worsened to the point of speaking of an “energy crisis”. Accustomed to challenges, Elon Musk recently wanted to ease tensions by simply proposing to solve the energy problem by making a somewhat crazy promise: that of equipping the region with a battery farm whose total power reaches 100 MW ( the minimum needed to keep South Australia free of power cuts), all in just one hundred days. And if this deadline is not met, Elon Musk says he will do it for free.
The official offer was made by Tesla Vice President for Energy Products Lyndon Rive during a meeting with Australian politicians this week and made public on Twitter by Elon Musk himself:
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
South Australia is one of Australia’s sunniest and windiest regions and is the country’s largest consumer of renewable energy to date. But these energies do not deliver electricity all year round since it cannot be stored. The power stations produce on demand and when they exceed their production capacity, certain areas are deprived of energy. For this reason, the electricity supply does not always correspond with periods of high demand, which can lead to power outages during extreme weather periods such as heat waves. Tesla’s Powerwall 2 battery farms would alleviate the problem by storing electricity to intelligently redistribute it when power plants reach their peak production. They thus take over while waiting for the peak to end.
For Elon Musk, the entire project (an estimated value of US$25 million) could be completed in just one hundred days. Satisfied or your money back, literally, since if the company does not return on time, Musk plans to install the plant for free. Other signs are on the spot such as ARENA (the Australian Renewable Energy Agency) or the company Clean Energy Finance Corp. But when you get a money-back guarantee from the man who lands his rockets, plans to travel 600 mph by train, or promises to send men to Mars, you should seriously consider it. .
Source