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Category: Alternative Energy / Energy / Electricity Energy and Utilities / Federal - State Issues / Government and Politics / Federal Government

Musk, Turnbull in talks on renewables after billionaire's '100 days or it's free' pledge

Sunday, 12 Mar 2017 12:28:45

Elon Musk says energy storage is the solution to SA's power woes. (Reuters: Rashid Umar Abbasi/AAP: Lukas Coch)

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he has held a "great in depth discussion" with Elon Musk, after the billionaire tech entrepreneur offered to fix South Australia's energy problems within 100 days.

On Friday, Mr Musk said energy storage could solve the state's electricity problems with a Tesla battery farm, and work could be completed within 100 days, or it would be free.

He followed that up in talks with South Australia's Premier Jay Weatherill, later tweeting that he was impressed by the State Government's commitment to a "smart, quick solution".

Twitter was again the preferred medium of communication on Sunday, with Mr Musk and Mr Turnbull swapping appreciative tweets after speaking for nearly an hour.

External Link: Malcolm Turnbull: Thanks @elonmusk for a great in depth discussion today about energy storage and it's [sic] role in delivering affordable & reliable electricity

External Link: Elon Musk: You're most welcome. Very exciting to discuss the future of electricity. Renewables + storage arguably biggest disruption since DC to AC

External Link: Malcolm Turnbull: Thanks Elon. That's why I asked our clean energy finance agencies to focus on storage - vital now w generation more distributed & variable

How energy storage could help

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

A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said that: "The pair had an in-depth discussion on the value of storage and the future of the electricity system".

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

The idea also had the support of Opposition Leader Steven Marshall, who urged Mr Weatherill to consider the proposal.

While it is not clear what an array in South Australia would cost, Tesla did deliver on a battery farm in Southern California, built using an array of 400 Powerpack 2 batteries.

South Australia suffered a statewide blackout last September, while during a recent heatwave customers were intentionally blacked out because there was not enough power to meet demand.

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