Billionaire Elon Musk and his company聽Tesla are聽to build聽the world鈥檚 biggest lithium ion battery聽in South Australia.
The California-based company聽will work聽in聽partnership with French energy utility Neoen to deliver the project to a wind farm north of South Australia鈥檚 capital Adelaide.
The move comes in a bid to help stabilise South Australia鈥檚 power grid and reduce energy prices, and will make the state a leader in renewable energy.
Musk has said that the 129MWh battery, which is paired with a wind farm, is planned to be three times as powerful as the next largest lithium ion battery.
He confirmed on Twitter that the battery would be up and running within 100 days of signing the contract or would be delivered free.
Deputy chief executive of Neoen, Romain Desrousseaux, said that at 129MWh the South Australian lithium ion battery would become the largest in the world.
Musk told reporters in Adelaide that there would be technical challenges to consider during the project, considering its planned status as the largest battery installation in the world 鈥渂y a significant margin鈥�.
鈥淲hen you make something three times as big, does it still work as well? We think it will, but there is some risk in that,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e confident in our techniques and the design of the system.
鈥淵ou can essentially charge up the battery packs when you have excess power when the cost of production is very low … and then discharge it when the cost of power production is high, and this effectively lowers the average cost to the end customer.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a fundamental efficiency improvement for the grid.鈥�
The battery comes as part of a $550m energy plan drawn up by the state government following a state-wide blackout in 2016.
鈥淚鈥檓 thrilled with the selection of Neoen and Tesla, whose experience and world leadership in energy security and renewables will help South Australia take charge of its energy future,鈥� said the state鈥檚 premier, Jay Weatherill.
鈥淏attery storage is the future of our national energy market and the eyes of the world will be following our leadership in this space.
鈥淭his historic agreement does more than bring a sustainable energy giant in Tesla to South Australia, it will also have some significant economic spin-offs.鈥�
The region has experienced ongoing problems with energy blackouts since September last year, leading to the federal聽government聽directing blame聽at the continued use of renewable technologies.