Elon Musk: "If I can't solve Australia's energy problems in 100 days, I will do it for free"

Elon Musk likes big challenges, and if with them he can give his different companies more notoriety, so much the better. The founder Tesla, has claimed to be able to solve South Australia's energy problems. And as in the best teleshopping offers, he has assured that if he cannot do it in 100 days he would do it completely free.

As reported The Guardian, his proposal seems to have been ambitious and impactful enough to convince a Mike Cannon-Brookes, Australian co-founder of Atlassian, that I asked him how serious he was with her. Finally, and after giving the information that if they did not get it in a hundred days they would do it for free, Cannon-Brookes has told Musk to wait a week for him to try to solve the political and financing issues and that they would talk.

South Australia is immersed in a great energy crisis, and it doesn't seem like the federal and state governments are close to solving it. They have suffered blackouts since September last year, which is causing a growing political battle in which the federal government blames renewable energy for all the ills. The Australian Energy Market Operator while ensuring that these blackouts are due to several factors, such as unexpectedly high energy demands.

Tesla to the rescue

@mcannonbrookes Tesla wants to get the system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free. That serious enough for you?

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10th 2017

Against this background, the Tesla VP of Energy Products, Lyndon Rive, declared last Thursday in the Australian Financial Review that his company could solve all South Australian energy problems in a hundred days if they asked thanks to the production speeds they can achieve with their Nevada Gigafactory. In fact, he said he could commit to installing the necessary 100-300 megawatt-hour batteries.

Given these statements, Attlasian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes asked Rive and Elon Musk on Twitter how serious they were with this proposal. Musk's answer was that so seriously if they didn't have the system installed and working in 100 days from the signing of the contract they would do it all for free. "Is it serious enough for you?" Musk joked.

@mcannonbrookes $ 250 / kWh at the pack level for 100MWh + systems. Tesla is moving to fixed and open pricing and terms for all products.

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 10th 2017

Canon-Brokes' response was just as forceful, asking him to give him approximate cost prices, and telling him to wait a week while he tried to take the necessary political and budgetary steps so that Tesla could try to meet his challenge. If he succeeded, Tesla would have gotten his next contract thanks to gambling it all or nothing on social networks.

Currently Tesla does not have 300 MWh batteries ready, which is the maximum capacity said by Rive, but the vice president of the company is optimistic about being able to have them ready in the given timeframe if they finally decided to count on them. The last similar challenge for Musk's company was to install an 80 MWh battery farm in Southern California in just 90 days at a cost of $ 100 million.

These moves quite fit the mindset of Elon Musk, a businessman committed to promote renewable energy and make money with projects that help othersFrom solving traffic problems by building tunnels (HyperLoop) to putting man back on the moon (SpaceX). It remains to be seen if the Australian government finally trusts Tesla and if they keep their word or not.

HYPERLOOP

hyperloops is the trade name registered by the aerospace transport company SpaceX, for the transport of passengers and goods in vacuum tubes at high speed.