Tesla’s Giant Batter In Australia Is A Cash Cow, Naysayers Can Eat It

The huge 100MW battery that Tesla provided to South Australia was largely considered a PR stunt, more than anything else. Elon Musk promised that he would be able to build such a structure in 100 days and did so well before the set deadline. Now, it seems the project is actually turning out to be a huge cash cow. The $800,000 in just two days, kind.

Now, it’s worth pointing out that the owner of the giant battery is actually Neoen, which made about $1 million AUD in 48 hours off it. This was according to a recent report published by Renew Economy, noting how the project that resulted from Musk trying to prove a point is now proving an even more profitable point; big batteries make a lot of money.

As to how this even worked, it’s basically because of how the power reserve is divided. 70MW/39MWh of the power that the battery holds are reserved for the South Australian government to use in case their coal plants go out. The remaining 30MW/90MWh goes to Neoen, which the company then used in a wholesale market trade.

Apparently, on January 18th and 19th, the company managed to sell this power at about $14,000 AUD/MWh. What’s more, Neoen didn’t have to generate that much power on its end.

Results like this are bound to convince more than a few investors to start looking at building their own giant battery or at least find someone who they could fund to do the same thing. Tesla and Neoen are actually already collaborating to construct a 20MW battery in Victoria, Australia, Futurism reports.

The local energy firm is even looking to create another giant battery in Queensland, which could put the one in South Australia to shame. With the kind of money that it’s already making, this could net Neoen a hefty amount of profit.