Tesla unveils its giant Megapack battery project in Texas

Tesla has unveiled its giant new Megapack battery project in Texas in a new Youtube video. It’s one of the biggest yet.

Texas is having to rethink its electric grid after bad weather last winter put so much pressure on the grid that it pushed it to the brink of failure. The strain resulted in many regions having rolling blackouts, and a lot of people are rethinking their energy situation.

Residential energy storage has gained popularity with homeowners in Texas since the crisis as they don’t want to rely on the grid too much. Electric utilities are also turning to energy storage on a bigger scale, and there has been a big project underway in Angleton near Houston.

Tesla was revealed to behind the secretive big battery project in Texas early last year. Now the company has unveiled the 81-Megapack project in a new Youtube video:

Tesla wrote about the project in the description:

In Angleton, Texas, an energy storage project was proposed to provide sustainable backup support to the grid. This resulted in the installation of 81 Tesla Megapacks, providing greater outage protection while reducing the community’s reliance on fossil fuels.

The project has a capacity of 100 MW/200 MWh – making it one of the biggest Tesla energy storage projects in the world. Hopefully, it will help soften the blow if an event similar to last February’s happens again, but the Texas grid is going to need to add a lot more backup power.

As we previously reported, Tesla has been approved to be an energy distributor in the state of Texas. The move is part of CEO Elon Musk’s vision for Tesla Energy to become a distributed global utility, an endeavor that could even outgrow the company’s automotive business.

Texas, where Tesla has officially moved, could become a big market to help the company achieve this goal. The company has several major energy projects underway in the state, including a deal to deploy solar roofs and Powerwalls on a “large scale” in a new community being built in Austin.