Could This Be the Solution to Our Power Problem?

By Danielle Pope

Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk speaks during a media tour of the Tesla Gigafactory, which will produce batteries for the electric carmaker, in Sparks, Nevada, U.S. July 26, 2016.  REUTERS/James Glover II
Founder and CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk speaks during a media tour of the Tesla Gigafactory, which will produce batteries for the electric carmaker, in Sparks, Nevada, U.S. July 26, 2016. REUTERS/James Glover II
Renewable energy company Tesla has put the Australian Government on notice

As our South Australian readers will tell you, the State has been having issues with their power. The network has been struggling, particularly with last month’s heatwave, which saw tens of thousands of homes experience blackouts.

Fall out from the heatwave saw governments blaming a variety of reasons including their opposing parties and even renewable energy, but it appears the main cause was an insufficient generation supply in the State. The decision to “load shed” (effectively switch off the power) saw over 40,000 customers affected for an average of 45 minutes, while the temperature hit about 40 degrees.

In the wake of the event, questions now remain about how to address the power shortage to avoid this happening in the future. Renewable energy company, Tesla, thinks they have the answer.

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, has said that he could install a battery farm capable of fixing the system “within 100 days of signing a contract,” or he will deliver the system for free.


The company recently completed an installation of an 80MWH grid-scale battery farm in southern California within just 90 days, which cost $100m US. As The Guardian reports, grid scale battery storage could help even out price spikes, prevent blackouts and improve reliability across the network.

Since Musk’s comments, it has been confirmed that the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has spoken to Musk, where the two apparently had an “in depth discussion about the value of storage and the future of the electricity system.” The final outcome of that discussion remains to be known, but both the Prime Minister and Musk shared their excitement on Twitter.

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