Under the radar, Tesla is building an energy storage project in Texas, according to Bloomberg. In Angleton, a city of almost 20,000 people located 40 miles south of Houston, Tesla’s subsidiary, Gambit Energy Storage, is installing the company’s modular megapacks. When completed, the 100 MW installation will be able to power about 20,000 homes. The Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) said Bloomberg the site can start operating as early as June.
It is not clear why Tesla is using a subsidiary as the public face of this project. It is not the first venture of its kind for the company. In 2017, it built a 100 MWh battery park in southern Australia. It is also currently supplying Megapacks to Pacific Gas and Electric of California for its ongoing project in the Bay Area Moss Landing.
But there is no doubt about the timing of the project. Last month, an unprecedented winter left much of Texas without electricity. When the power grid doubled, Tesla CEO Elon Musk accessed Twitter for simulated ERCOT. “I’m not winning that R,” he said of the organization, which manages approximately 90% of the state’s electricity grid and is under intense scrutiny after its near-failure last month. Notably, Musk was asked by one of his followers whether a Tesla-like battery storage project built in Australia was possible in Texas. “Yes,” he said.