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Elon Musk: I Can Fix South Australia Power Network in 100 Days Or It's Free (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report on The Guardian: Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of electric car giant Tesla, has thrown down a challenge to the South Australian and federal governments, saying he can solve the state's energy woes within 100 days -- or he'll deliver the 100MW battery storage system for free. On Thursday, Lyndon Rive, Tesla's vice-president for energy products, told the AFR the company could install the 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage that would be required to prevent the power shortages that have been causing price spikes and blackouts in the state. Thanks to stepped-up production out of Tesla's new Gigafactory in Nevada, he said it could be achieved within 100 days. Mike Cannon-Brookes, the Australian co-founder of Silicon Valley startup Atlassian, on Friday tweeted Elon Musk, asking if Tesla was serious about being able to install the capacity. Musk replied that the company could do it in 100 days of the contract being signed, or else provide it free, adding: "That serious enough for you?"
If the batteries will be made in Nevada, and shipped to Australia, I'm curious to know how they plan to transport them. It seems to me the most logical way would be by boat but could they get there quickly enough? If these are lithium ion batteries would it be possible to ship them by air given all the shipping restrictions that are placed on lithium ion batteries currently? If they go by boat how would they be packed to minimize the chance of a catastrophe en route?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The first is always free
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Then they'll be back on Elon's doorstep in 5 - 10 years getting replacements because nobody else sells the batteries and they don't last forever...
Of course he'd make this bet. It's not about solving a problem, it's about creating a very expensive dependency on his company.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
He said after the contract was signed. Presumably all permits would have been worked out by that time.
Also, while he's waiting on the permits and contract to be signed he could be loading up all the needed equipment, getting his people ready, making arrangements for passage on ships and/or planes, and getting the logistics down. Before the ink is dry he'd already have the stuff moving so if, as others above had said, it takes 20 days to get to Australia by boat, that leaves him 80 days to do the work.
Ambitious? Certainly. Doable? Only one way to find out.
You think Elon & crew aren't smart enough to put that into the contract as a clause?
Dude, it's only free if it doesn't solve the problem. These battery packs are *designed* to solve this kind of problem. Buy low, sell high - only with electricity.
He boasting on his ability to deliver the on the promise. The contract will certainly include clauses that remove liability of providing the system for free in the case of other actors that can influence it that are outside of his control including a nature induced issue during shipping, piracy, the shipment held up by Australian customs, and union strikes that remove the ability to actual move material. That's just a limited list of the things that will probably show up.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Drop bears are attracted to batteries. I can't see the battery storage solution surviving the first drop bear attack.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I don't see the gigafactory opening, solar roof tiles or SpaceX landings as "less action". But maybe that's just me.
If they can perform enough of the "installation" work prior to actually having the batteries present, then I'd make -j 1000000 that thing.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
In terms of it being doable, they built an 80 MWh installation in Los Angeles in 90 days, so building a 100 MWh installation in 100 days doesn't sound unreasonable.
I'm curious to know how they plan to transport them. It seems to me the most logical way would be by boat but could they get there quickly enough?
A container ship can cross the pacific in 2-4 weeks so that's not a big deal. Lead time would be a serious problem though for his 100 day boast. Presume it takes 20 days to transport the batteries and maybe another 30-40 to build them all (probably optimistic), they would be left with maybe a month to design, install and test the whole thing. Not saying it would be impossible but it would be a tight squeeze most likely unless he has already built the batteries and designed the system. He could probably get it up and running quickly but perhaps not at full capacity.
> Presume it takes 20 days to transport the batteries and maybe another 30-40 to build them all (probably optimistic), they would be left with maybe a month to design, install and test the whole thing.
So you would build it and deliver it, THEN start designing it? A Scrum advocate I'm guessing.
As popular as Musk is, and he is no doubt doing cool things, I can't help but think that the SA Government should be looking locally for a possible solution before importing battery units from Nevada.
We have an Australian company that is bringing Grid Storage products to market using Flow Battery tech called RedFlow, and it seems to be better suited for grid based applications rather than a re-purposed automotive unit, particularly when it comes to risk of fires.
You mean apart from delivering 100k+ electric cars per year and launching rockets that can land vertically on floating platforms in the middle of the ocean, or how about the gigantic battery factory? Yeah, other than that the dude is a total snake oil salesman.
I find it interesting that lots of high-level business is now done through Twitter - both Trump and Musk are doing it, soon others will follow.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There was no power shortage in south Australia.
There was:
- A huge storm which took down several UHV power distribution towers.
- The Heywood interconnector was down so the state was short some 650MW of capacity.
- A massive upset from the infrastructure damage that tripped off the base load energy suppliers.
- The loss of baseload caused the Murrylink interconnector (HVDC) to loose sync and trip (another 220MW gone)
- A loss in all that wonderful green energy they have because without the baseload or the interconnect there was nothing left to synchronise wind, solar, storage, or anything else to the grid.
You want to fix South Australia? Fund the upgrades to the SA/VIC interconnects that have been requested for the past 10 years. Do some much needed maintenance on the distribution network. SA currently has some capacity left in its generation. In 2018 they are expected to have a 600MW shortage during peak periods leaving them 200MW spare on the interconnect capacity.
Throwing in a 100MW battery system won't do anything to prevent the next major blackout.
The Heywood interconnect was online but it did trip on overload when much of the wind capacity couldn't handle the upset caused by downed transmission lines.
So ~4% of Fat Man nuclear bomb
I am not really sure. From what I was reading, Hiroshima was incredibly inefficient. On the order of 1%. And next to the "15 kilotons of TNT", they seem to be indicating that that is just the theoretical number based on the mass of the payload. Implying that the Hiroshima explosion was just 1% of the number given (15 kt).
So it might actually be something closer to 400% of Fat Man. As for Little Boy (aka Hiroshima) it is either .7% or if I am reading this right 70% of the actual explosion of Hiroshima (minus the dirty bomb aspect).
Something else that makes it seem like even 70% is grossly underestimating it. I am reading that an interview with someone who I am guessing must know something about it, stated that only seven-tenths of a gram of uranium did anything at Hiroshima. And Wolfram alpha stated that this 100 MW hrs was equivalent to 4.4 grams of uranium. So by that comparison we get 630% of Hiroshima.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.