Elon Musk wins his bet in South Australia!
As a long time fan of renewable energy, the latest news about Elon Musk fills me with glee. He bet that he could install a megabattery in South Australia in 100 days, and he’s come in ahead of schedule!
The story began last year when South Australia suffered a massive storm that destroyed infrastructure meant to allow Australian states to ‘share’ energy on a huge network. Due to some market manipulation on pricing, and a toothless watchdog asleep at its post [yes, AEMO I’m looking at you] South Australia suffered crippling blackouts, off and on, for weeks.
As the South Australia government is Labor and had invested heavily in wind farms, the Liberals in the national government went on a renewable energy bashing spree without offering up one, single practical solution. And then Elon Musk spoke up and shamed them all. He said that he could create a mammoth battery capable of storing the energy from the wind farms until needed. Then he bet the cost of the battery — $50 million dollars — that he could make good on his promise in 100 days. If he lost, he would carry the cost of the project.
Well guess what? -big grin- South Australia has a $50 million dollar bill to pay!
More importantly, all the dinosaurs in our government advocating for dirty coal power stations have been silenced, at least for a while.
You can read the whole story here:
Today really has been a good day. Thank you, Elon Musk. :)
cheers
Meeks
