Elon Musk Will Fix South Australia Power Network in 100 Days, or It's Free

Megalith

Megalith

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The Tesla CEO will be putting his money where his mouth is after declaring his plan to save South Australia’s energy issues within months, or else provide his services free of charge. SA is experiencing power shortfalls and blackouts, and their politicians and tech figures think Musk’s battery technology is the answer to their power plant issues. Elon seems happy to help.

Elon Musk, the billionaire co-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.
 
I wonder what his estimate of time will be. By my very rough guess, he will be cutting it close.
 
Is it just me, or does it seem like he is starting to get a bit cocky?

That seems like an awfully large problem to solve in just over 3 months, especially with all the regulatory implications.

There is probably a contractual out in all that.

*Offer void if anything gets held up by politics/regulation
 
Free meaning billions of dollars from the Federal Government. So I guess we are funding Australia's power grid now?
 
EODetroit said:
What the hell are you going on about? What billions? I mean my ignore list isn't nearly full, but I'll give you a chance to respond.
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I'm surprised mine isn't yet. Makes a really great substitute for the lack of dislike button here. Would've left a long time ago if not for ignore being offered to fend off soooooooo many idiot trolls.
 
viscountalpha said:
I wonder what his estimate of time will be. By my very rough guess, he will be cutting it close.
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They did something similar in 90 days in California, I think 80kwh. They also installed a big plant in Kauai island recently.

I'm sure they got the experience by now to back it up, just a matter of having the supply so depends on how far along the Gigafactory project is now, sounds like they're confident about their progress in that regard.

Also this is just for providing the battery units, all mass produced and modular in design, it doesn't include installation or delivery etc, those factors are someone else's problem, so it's not that crazy a claim imho.
 
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What would you guess that the cost would be for a battery unit that would cover a peak of 275KWH a day for say 3 days?

Sure sounds better than a diesel generator for short term power outages. Probably cheaper to just use flashlights and suffer. :)
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Is it just me, or does it seem like he is starting to get a bit cocky?

That seems like an awfully large problem to solve in just over 3 months, especially with all the regulatory implications.

There is probably a contractual out in all that.

*Offer void if anything gets held up by politics/regulation
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I give him a free pass on being cocky because 1) He's a gaming geek and 2) He tends to actually eventually get what he says will be done done. Guy is like the Dave Grohl of entrepreneurs imho. Just does amazing things with a bunch of different ventures.
 
trentchau said:
He tends to actually eventually get what he says will be done done.
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yes but you miss the flaw of your 'logic' here. The reason he 'gets it done' (and he doesnt always do that, btw, see Hyperloop for an epic fail in the making) is because...


he throws money at it!

Guess what problems normal people run into? you run out of money.

"You can get anything done if you throw enough money at it".

Of course, the problem with the SA and the Government in AUS is the fact that instead of the GOV throwing money at it (there is a lot taken from Aussies in taxes, believe me), they pocket the money for their retirement funds and bonuses and spend it on "Womens Groups" and virtue signalling instead of spending it on things that really matter. e.g. health systems, infrastructure like roads, telecoms, etc etc

our political representatives are TOTALLY disconnected from every day Australians (aside from an insignificant few who you could count on one hand, and which get treated as "racists" because they speak factual truths and reality).
 
HoffY said:
yes but you miss the flaw of your 'logic' here. The reason he 'gets it done' (and he doesnt always do that, btw, see Hyperloop for an epic fail in the making) is because...


he throws money at it!

Guess what problems normal people run into? you run out of money.

"You can get anything done if you throw enough money at it".

Of course, the problem with the SA and the Government in AUS is the fact that instead of the GOV throwing money at it (there is a lot taken from Aussies in taxes, believe me), they pocket the money for their retirement funds and bonuses and spend it on "Womens Groups" and virtue signalling instead of spending it on things that really matter. e.g. health systems, infrastructure like roads, telecoms, etc etc

our political representatives are TOTALLY disconnected from every day Australians (aside from an insignificant few who you could count on one hand, and which get treated as "racists" because they speak factual truths and reality).
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For someone arguing the finer point of things I would of expected you to notice that I send "Tends to" not "Always does", and that logically less if you have the resources (money also being a resource, and also time) there's a higher chance at something being done. I respect Elon because not only is he throwing money behind stuff, building a braintrust to try to get things done, but he's also investing himself into it.

Btw I've seen a lot of normal people succeed quite incredibly at getting things done by just putting elbow grease into it.
 
Even if he can provide them the batteries, what about the inverters and other infrastructure needed to connect them to the grid? That stuff isn't free and it takes quite a bit of effort and time to install it all. There are no easy solutions to the intermittancy of so-called renewable energy sources.
 
HoffY said:
yes but you miss the flaw of your 'logic' here. The reason he 'gets it done' (and he doesnt always do that, btw, see Hyperloop for an epic fail in the making)
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The Hyperloop idea is just a side hobby, not something he plans to push personally, It's open sourced, a theoretical concept he handed to others to try, he doesn't have any direct involvement in it aside from promoting healthy competitions for college students and such. One imagines it helps him scout for future technical talent with that endeavor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop#History

So whether that idea succeeds or fails is of no consequence to him in the context of your argument.

The batteries business, though, is his bread and butter, and he even thinks it'll eclipse the EVs business in terms of significance to the Tesla's operations. If he can't handle a small project such as this one (it's only 100kwh) then he's got bigger problems to deal with imho.
 
trentchau said:
I would of expected you to notice that I send "Tends to" not "Always does",
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For someone counter commenting on the assumption that i didn't notice you 'send' "Tends to" as opposed to "not always".... thats a DOH for you. ;)


trentchau said:
I respect Elon because not only is he throwing money behind stuff, building a braintrust to try to get things done, but he's also investing himself into it.
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Indeed.

trentchau said:
Btw I've seen a lot of normal people succeed quite incredibly at getting things done by just putting elbow grease into it.
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Assumptions are bad, mmkay? As have i. I have also seen hard work get people no where. Whats your point by including that little "btw" ? i certainly never implied Elon didn't work hard or that working hard somehow doesnt' help one acheive a goal. *puzzled*

Just a simple "yes having copious amounts of monetary resources does tend to up your success rate" would have sufficed. ;)

Wierdo said:
a theoretical concept he handed to others to try, he doesn't have any direct involvement
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Given its his idea and he promoted it (and still does promote it from memory) as being a great one etc Would that not make him involved given his reputation would be on the line in some way? (and yes i realise it really isn't his innitical idea and that it has be "done" in some form or another in history, but his current inception of his as portrayed by him in press releases surely is another level of "his particular concept on the idea")

Wierdo said:
If he can't handle a small project such as this one
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Why would you bring into question the relative size of the project and whether he could or could not handle it? Weird tangent to go on Sir.
 
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HoffY said:
yes but you miss the flaw of your 'logic' here. The reason he 'gets it done' (and he doesnt always do that, btw, see Hyperloop for an epic fail in the making) is because...


he throws money at it!

Guess what problems normal people run into? you run out of money.

"You can get anything done if you throw enough money at it".
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Q:
Have you seen the new US Military Fighter Jet? The one they can't make work right? Despite having nearly HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS it still ain't workin right.

Money doesn't get things done, people who have the knowledge, skills, and proper resources get shit done.
 
HoffY said:
etc
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Side tangent, but I thought this was an interesting Tesla analysis for Aussies, or folks in general who may be interested in the topic. It's recent and related to this news piece so thought I'd pass along when I ran across it:
http://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-says-australia-market-rules-outdated-favour-incumbents-32157/

The "changing the settlement period on wholesale markets from 30 minutes to 5 minutes" point was interesting for starters.

Now back to topic, here's Elon's involvement, just a white paper he gave away:
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf

It's rather well described, diagrams and mathematical modeling etc, all that available for critique if you care to do so. But that's more or less all he's done in terms of personal involvement, he presented his idea to other future entrepreneurs cause he's already got his hands full running two companies.

That's all.

Summary of state of this concept a few years later so far:
 
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Guarana [BAWLS] said:
Have you
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Poorly managing resources, be it monetary, labor, or whatever, does not invalidate my point.

And your last line actually does validate my point. With money, you hire those kinds of people (and can re-hire more of them if you failed to hire them the first time, or failed to hire enough the first time, or whatever).

its a common saying.
 
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HoffY said:
Poorly managing resources, be it monetary, labor, or whatever, does not invalidate my point.

And your last line actually does validate my point. With money, you hire those kinds of people (and can re-hire more of them if you failed to hire them the first time, or failed to hire enough the first time, or whatever).

its a common saying.
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And yet the US Government makes a habit of doing shit like that, and rarely seems to get it right.

Must seems to have a knack for getting it done, regardless.
 
U.S. Government. Isn't that an acronym for "miss management"? ;)


Or perhaps i should say... the illusion of miss-management (they know exactly where they want to filter that greenback!). ;)
 
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