As the federal government grapples with talk of an energy crisis, two tech billionaires appear to be getting a ground-breaking deal done on Twitter.

The spur was Tesla's high-profile claim on Thursday that its batteries could solve South Australia's much-publicised energy problems in 100 days.

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes took up the claim with gusto, linking to an Australian Financial Review article on the subject and asking Tesla founder Elon Musk if he was serious.

"Holy s#%t", he tweeted, then appealed to Musk directly: "Lyndon & @elonmusk - how serious are you about this bet? If I can make the $ happen (& politics), can you guarantee the 100MW in 100 days?"

Musk replied on Friday saying Tesla would install the system for free if it was not up and running within 100 days of a contract being signed.

Cannon-Brookes confirmed the deal with a digital handshake, calling Musk a "legend" and asking for "mates rates" and a week to sort out logistics.

The mentioned bet refers to a statement made in Melbourne by Lyndon Rive, Tesla's vice-president for energy products, who said the company could install up to 300 megawatt hours of grid-scale battery storage within 100 days if requested.

It is understood the company believes the proposal would require a change in electricity market rules, but not a direct subsidy.

"If you had storage deployed during the blackout [in] South Australia you wouldn't have had the blackout," Mr Rive said on Thursday.

The proposal comes amid heated political debate about how to ensure energy security and reliability, and to limit price rises while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Zen Energy last month said its proposal for a $100 million large-scale solar plant with battery storage could solve most of South Australia's electricity problems if rules were changed to make it viable.

Proving they are up to the task, Tesla came to the rescue of California last year when  

"We don't need more gas peaker plants or ridiculous "clean coal", Mr Cannon-Brooks continued on Twitter shortly after. Let's solve it with software and innovation."

He resumed this morning:

Tesla has recently upped the production at its new Gigafactory facility in Nevada.

More to come