Elon Musk promises world's largest battery storage facility in 100 days

July 7 (UPI) -- Tesla Inc. founder Elon Musk announced construction of the largest battery storage facility on Friday, as well as a 100-day deadline to get it built.

The electric car company outbid 91 other companies to win the contract to construct a 100-megawatt lithium-ion battery storage facility near Jamestown, Australia. It will obtain energy from nearby wind power and store it in devices known as a Tesla Powerpacks. It will be capable of powering 30,000 homes. The facility, a project of Tesla and the French renewable energy company Neoen, will be the world's largest.

"The world will look at it as an example ... [of] a large-scale battery application for the grid that will really take a large amount of load. This is definitely the way of the future, and I think other states will be taking a closer look at this and seeing if it's applicable to their needs. And I suspect in most cases it is," Musk said.

He also guaranteed the $6.3 billion project will be completed within 100 days, or it will be free. Lyndon Rive, co-founder of Solar City, a company that merged with Tesla, said in March that the energy storage project in South Australia could go from contract-signing to completion within 100 days.

"We actually insisted in the contract that we be held to the hundred days or it's free. That's what we said publicly, that's what we are going to do," Musk said.

South Australia endures severe storms that damage critical infrastructure and cause energy blackouts. The state government sees renewable energy projects as the remedy for those difficulties.