Wouldn’t mind the money, but it seems like everyone wants to have a piece of you. Elon is just fresh off answering twitter questions about solving world hunger. In summary (not a direct quote): “Yes, I will give you $6.4 billion to end world hunger, but you’ll have to show me the plan and provide the accounting. P.S. What happened to the $8 billion you raised last year?”
Next comes a call from his mate down under — Mike Cannon-Brookes — suggesting he build a battery factory in the never never. Stone the crows there’s not a moment’s peace. Mike was the one who brought South Australia’s energy plight to Elon’s notice and set off the chain of events that led to the (then) world’s largest battery being built. And, yes, the battery is doing very well, thank you. Not quite as popular as the Big Banana or the Big Pineapple, but a lot more useful.
Australia has the raw materials (minerals and energy) to manufacture batteries, and even Morgan Stanley thinks it is a more stable and secure situation than China. If only Scotty from marketing would put a bit of support behind it.
Cheap energy from solar and wind, abundant available raw materials, and an experienced workforce would make Australia an ideal site for a battery factory. Take the mining industry higher up the value chain. We’d still be exporting energy, just in a different form. Cans (batteries) vs. lumps (of coal).
I hope that Mike can tap into his inner “Energizer bunny” and help his friend to take the investment plunge down under.