Tesla to build large battery to power homes in Texas: report

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk will construct a large battery that will connect to the Texas grid, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.

Gambit Energy Storage, which is registered as a Tesla unit, is building an over 100-megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, the report said. The battery could power about 20,000 homes in peak summer, the report added.

Tesla could not be reached for a comment.

This comes days after a mid-February storm temporarily knocked out around half the state’s generating plants, triggering outages that killed dozens and pushed power prices up to 10 times the normal rate.

In 2016, Tesla had won a contract to provide a 20-megawatt energy storage system at a substation owned by California utility Southern California Edison.

The company already makes Powerwall, a battery that stores energy, detects outages and automatically becomes your home’s energy source when the grid goes down. Unlike gasoline generators, Powerwall keeps your lights on and phones charged without upkeep, fuel or noise. Pair with solar and recharge with sunlight to keep your appliances running for days.