We know storms can damage homes and communities, but they can also destroy something else that’s very important: power lines. Puerto Rico recently suffered major setbacks when Hurricane Maria broke down the entire island’s power supply. Similarly, South Australia suffered a state-wide power outage last year during a storm.

Well, in March, a Tesla vice-president light-heartedly bragged about the power of his company’s batteries. That brag soon became a challenge for Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who claimed his company could actually build a battery to solve the energy problems in South Australia in less than a hundred days. He set his own deadline and stated that if Tesla didn’t finish the work on time, the company would pay for the cost of building the battery (possibly billions of dollars). Other companies came to help, as did the local South Australian government, and … they finished the job within a hundred days!

The mega-battery, installed in a power plant south of Adelaide, can power 30,000 homes for an hour. The battery was installed in late November, underwent governmental regulations testing, and was launched in early December. It is the world’s largest lithium-ion battery, and it will actually be used to store excess power from wind farms so that it can be used during future energy shortages.

Impressive, indeed! We love stories of challenges being met!

Did a challenge make you take on something hard? What happened? Send your story to editor@xyzanews.com!