Tesla Battery Launch Party in South Australia

Elon Musk was in Adelaide last week to launch the worlds largest battery ... and a space station

What does it take to get people from all over Australia to fly to Adelaide and then jump on a shuttle bus for a 3 hour rocky ride to a wind-swept prairie? 

Elon Musk. Tech billionaire. Space pioneer. Motor and energy industry disruptor, Artificial Intelligence thought leader and president of the Boring company.....no joke, it bores!

Elon Musk with SA Premier, Jay Weatherill

Tesla won the contract to build a 130 MWh battery facility with the guarantee that it would be built in 100 days or delivered free. Like many others, I was eager to make the trek for the launch.

Amongst those present at the launch party were politicians, energy industry luminaries, tech startups and plenty of the Teslarati....those evangelical EV drivers who were extended an invitation to see "the master".
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The Tesla Powerpacks in place at the Hornsdale wind farm. Photo: Brent Clark

And as always at these events there was more than one surprise. This battery installation is the world's largest....for the time being. It will be able to power 30,000 houses and apartments in South Australia during the next round of heatwaves. To create the number of Powerpacks required for this installation, it was the equivalent of taking the total output of the gigafactory for 5 consecutive days.
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Watch Elon Musk presentation at battery launch party in Jamestown. Video: Daniel Borin

After the initial suspense of whether Elon would make the party, there was rapturous fanfare as he walked on to the stage. The excitement was palpable.....everyone, hanging on each individual word that came from the world's number one innovator.

Marketing genius. The entire event has created a new generation of Tesla advocates, who will be queueing up for Model S, X and III. It has created a new tourism destination to rival the Barossa. That is Horndale, the current site of a very Boring windfarm and future site of a Tesla Supercharging station.
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Daniel Borin, Brent Clark and Power Ledger Co-founder Jemma Green at the Tesla Battery Launch Party

​While down in Adelaide Wattblock also met with Adelaide Strata and Strata Data and spent some quality time with Daniel Borin, Tesla owner and strata software director who has reviewed his Model S here.

For myself, it was truly inspiring to see the man who is driving us towards a sustainable energy future. I returned to Sydney, highly recommending battery launch parties. I also wait with anticipation for the day that strata buildings start to take control of their energy future and lock down their energy security.

The battery will prevail.

For further reading try ABC News, The Australian and Renew Economy.  You can also watch a video of Elon's presentation courtesy of Daniel Borin here.
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Brent Clark
CEO, Wattblock

Strata managers can now register buildings in the City of Sydney and in Melbourne for a fully funded electric vehicle recharge assessment. Registrations for Brisbane have closed. However, if you're interested in learning more contact Scott Witheridge on (02) 9977 1801. Read more about the program here.