Elon Musk's Promised 100-Megawatt Battery in 100 Days for South Australia is Underway

A Promise Made

Telsa CEO Elon Musk has announced his contract with South Australia to build a 100-megawatt lithium power storage system. Not only will this system hold the record for highest capacity battery system of its kind, but Musk also aims to construct it in a very short time span: just 100 days.

Musk set the deadline for himself in a series of tweets back in March. What started off as a casual internet exchange has blossomed into an international partnership that could provide reliable energy for the many Australians who experienced a crisis last year when several parts of the country had power shortages.

A Promise Kept

The Australian summer, with its high energy demands, is just a few months away, but Tesla is off to a phenomenal start to beating the tight deadline. Musk revealed that about half the promised capacity was already in place on site — a strong indicator that Tesla will easily glide through the short timeline.

“To have that done in two months is really pretty amazing,” Bloomberg reported that Musk said in a speech on the site of the battery installation. “You can’t even remodel your kitchen in that amount of time. It serves as a great example to the rest of the world of what can be done."

Not only will the battery system help Australia prevent power outages, but it will also bolster the country's efforts to transition to clean energy. The goal is for the battery system to be powered by renewable energies like solar and wind farms.

“There were lots of people that were making jokes about South Australia and making fun of our leadership in renewable energy,” Bloomberge reported that South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said at the event. “Today, they are laughing out the other side of their face.”