World's biggest lithium ion battery by Tesla set to power up

South Australia project site of Musk's latest renewables venture as deadline for installation nears

Wind turbines stand at the Hornsdale wind farm near Jamestown, South Australia, where the world's largest lithium-ion battery project is being installed. Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg

The billionaire Elon Musk’s giant battery being built in the Australian outback will be energised in coming days and begin testing, indicating Tesla is on track to meet a 100-day self-imposed deadline to install the system.

Tesla power packs have now been fully installed on a site near a wind farm north of Adelaide and will be tested to ensure the battery meets standards laid down by the energy market operator, the South Australia state government said on Thursday.

"The world’s largest lithium ion battery will be an important part of our energy mix,” said South Australia’s premier Jay Weatherill. “It sends the clearest message that South Australia will be a leader in renewable energy with battery storage.”

Mr Musk is building the system to help the state avert crippling electricity blackouts that have spurred a nationwide debate about security of energy supply in Australia. The futurist chief executive made a bet on Twitter in March that he could install a 100-megawatt storage facility within 100 days or it would be free, and the clock started ticking at the end of September when the contract was signed.

His battery system is designed to overcome one of the main obstacles to greater reliance on renewable power sources - they can store up power produced while the wind blows or sun shines, and then release it steadily to the grid later when generation stalls.

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The entrepreneur has high hopes for the wide-scale roll-out of solar and battery-based energy storage after acquiring SolarCity last year. Tesla sees the combination of those two clean energy technologies as key to its overall effort to accelerate the transition to renewables and wean the world off fossil fuels.

Although California-based Tesla is best known for making electric cars, the company sells its lithium-ion batteries to utilities eager for cost-effective ways to integrate renewable sources of power like solar and wind into their electric grids. Tesla also markets a home battery called the Powerwall to residential consumers.

For Mr Musk, delivering the battery ahead of deadline would back up an earlier win where Tesla delivered a large battery project in Southern California in 90 days to alleviate the risk of winter blackouts.

Tesla has missed almost every aggressive product milestone it set for itself in the past decade and its mass-market electric saloon has been hit by production delays.