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Category: Electricity Energy and Utilities / Industry / States and Territories / Federal - State Issues / Government and Politics

Elon Musk's talk with Turnbull 'just general conversation'

Monday, 13 Mar 2017 07:41:16

Malcolm Turnbull said he had in-depth talks with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. (AAP/Reuters)

Federal Government frontbencher Matt Canavan has talked down the significance of a phone call between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and billionaire technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Last week, Mr Musk outlined a plan to solve South Australia's power woes, by offering to build a battery farm within 100 days to improve power reliability in the state, after recent major blackouts.

Yesterday Mr Turnbull said he had "in-depth" discussions with Mr Musk regarding his proposal.

"The pair had an in-depth discussion on the value of storage and the future of the electricity system," a statement from Mr Turnbull's office said.

But Senator Canavan told AM the phone call was a general conversation about the future of electricity.

"I think it's just discussions at this point, and I don't believe anything specific to South Australia was discussed, but we support all technologies," Mr Canavan said.

"The Prime Minister is right in saying that we as a country need to look at all of the above, we will need a mix of energy sources going forward."

How energy storage could help

South Australia's energy network has been struggling and Tesla thinks it has a solution.

Mr Canavan, who has talked up the future of coal-fired power, told AM a battery farm was just one option.

"For a politician to stand up and say that I've got the solution, all we need is 100 megawatt of batteries is fraught with danger," he said.

"What we should be doing is setting up the right system and framework in place to guarantee energy security over time."

Mr Musk has also been in talks with South Australia's Premier Jay Weatherill, tweeting that he was impressed by the State Government's commitment to a "smart, quick solution".

Mr Weatherill said he was keen to discuss the matter with Mr Musk further and was "certainly not ruling it out".

The SA Government is expected to make an announcement tomorrow after it flagged its own "dramatic" intervention to the power crisis.

It has explicitly not ruled out re-nationalising parts of the privatised system.

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