Elon Musk tweets praise for Aussie billionaire energy-fixer Mike Cannon-Brookes

AUSSIE billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes who helped spark a social media debate about solving South Australia’s energy woes wasn’t expecting his conversation with Tesla to snowball.

• Atlassian valued at $3.5 billion despite having no sales staff

AUSSIE billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes who helped spark a social media debate about solving South Australia’s energy woes wasn’t expecting his conversation with Tesla to snowball.

But the co-founder of software firm Atlassian says there is a good chance of getting funding and a political commitment for a 100 day plan for large-scale battery storage, hatched by Tesla boss Elon Musk over Twitter following a meeting with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the weekend.

Bright spark... Mike Cannon-Brookes. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Just wanted to write a note of appreciation to the many Australians who came out in support of the battery plan, especially @mcannonbrookes

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2017

“It’s been extremely surprising I have to say to me, the number of people who have reached out,” Mr Cannon-Brookes told ABC radio today.

Mr Cannon-Brookes has already been approached by individuals, crowd-funding programs and superannuation funds interested in getting involved in the battery plan.

Praise... Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Today’s cartoon in the Daily Telegraph by Mark Knight

He is on the hunt for an economic model that will help South Australia and could deliver similar projects nationwide.

The billionaire believes Australian politicians are interested in solving the problem, after talking to more in the past week than in the previous year.

“I’m just trying to change the conversation so we talk about something other than coal and gas as a potential solution going forward for the country,” Mr Cannon-Brookes said.

“It’s a little embarrassing as to how fast and how far it has gone.”