Elon Musk called Warren Buffett’s power plan in Texas ‘crazy’ – and called on the state to rely on Tesla instead

• Elon Musk called Warren Buffett’s Texas diet plan “crazy.”
• He called on the state to use Tesla megapacks to store backup energy instead.
• Musk and Buffett have clashed before on topics like moats and tweets.
• See more stories on the Insider business page.

Elon Musk rejected Warren Buffett’s plan to prevent another energy crisis in Texas in a recent tweet. The CEO of Tesla also offered the state to rely on his company’s solution instead.

“It’s crazy,” Musk said. “Should use Tesla Megapacks to level grid load. More efficient, more reliable and costs less.”

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate wants to establish an emergency power reserve in Texas and build 10 natural gas-fired power plants in the state by November 2023, the Dallas Morning News reported.

He proposed to invest $ 8.3 billion in emergency power generation that would be backed by a $ 4 billion guarantee. However, he expects to be paid back and earn a 9.3% annual return on his investment, funded by higher energy bills for Texans.

Berkshire bosses argued that their back-up system would be cheaper than “cooling” the electricity grid to cope with the cold, or revamping the state’s energy market to reward excess capacity.

Musk would prefer Texas to use Tesla Megapacks – the clean energy company’s battery storage systems – to avoid yet another devastating blackout. The systems, which look like rows of high school lockers, are touted as powerful, compact, and easy to install on Tesla’s website.

Notably, Buffett’s beloved Apple plans to use 85 of the batteries on a northern California solar farm to help power its Cupertino headquarters, The Verge reported this week.

Musk and Buffett have faced each other before. The Tesla boss may have quoted Buffett in the past, but he admitted he was not the investor’s “biggest fan”. He also described the allocation of capital across Berkshire as “some kind of boring job,” and cast doubt on Buffett’s character as “benevolent grandfather”.

Additionally, the serial entrepreneur referred to Buffett’s idea of ​​economic moat or sustainable competitive advantage as a beloved brand or patented technology “lame.”

“Elon can turn things around in some areas,” Buffett replied. “I don’t think he would want to take us with candy,” he added, referring to Berkshire-owned See’s Candies.

Buffett also hailed Musk as a “remarkable guy,” but suggested he has “room for improvement” and should be more sober in his tweets.