Musk offers to fix Australia’s energy crisis in 100 days

To that end, co-founder of SolarCity (and Musk’s cousin) Lyndon Rive says they’re capable of installing 100 to 300 megawatt per hour battery storage, which could solve South Australia’s energy issues. Musk himself was the one to add the “or it’s free” offer in a tweet to venture capitalist Mike Cannon-Brookes, who cast doubt on the sincerity of Tesla’s offer Thursday night. He has said that his company would build a 100MW battery storage farm in the state, and that if the farm is not set up within 100 days, he will hand it over for free. “That serious enough for you?”, Musk wrote on Twitter.

The Atlassian founder accepted the offer, and told Musk to give him 7 days to sort out “politics & funding”.

Cannon-Brookes said he was flooded with calls and was keen to start work on it.

This offer from the US firm follows a series of power shortages in the state.

Not by Rive, but by the outspoken Tesla CEO Elon Musk himself.

At the pricing that Musk announced, the batteries to fix Australia’s power problem would cost just $25 million.

According to a Bloomberg report, South Australia suffered a blackout back in September after a storm caused a transmission failure. That’s not only good news for the estimated 1.6 million Australian households with rooftop solar, but also for power companies, who could stack the batteries to create massive energy banks.

At the moment, it seems Tesla isn’t banking on a direct subsidy, but for their plan to work there will need to be a change in attitude regarding energy policy in Australia, which now tends toward fossil fuels, and the plan for a “clean coal” power plant.

Sarah Hanson-Young, senator for South Australia, said on Twitter on Fridayshe wanted to talk to Musk about the offer.