SYDNEY: Entrepreneur Elon Musk has won a US$50 million bet by beating a 100-day deadline for building a giant battery to help South Australia avoid energy blackouts, officials said. State Premier Jay Weatherill said testing of the massive lithium ion battery would begin within days, ahead of the December 1 deadline Musk set for himself when he signed off on the project earlier this year. Musk had pledged to build the battery in the South Australian outback for free if it was not completed within the 100 days. South Africa-born Musk was a founder of payments company PayPal, electric carmaker Tesla Motors and SpaceX, maker and launcher of rockets and spacecraft. Australia is one of the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluters, due to its heavy use of coal-fired power.

Source: New Strait Times November 23, 2017 22:52 UTC