Almost a decade after moving into the electric vehicle industry, Elon Musk’s Tesla is supersizing its plans to bring its battery technology into the power storage game. Gambit Energy Storage LLC, a Tesla subsidiary, is building a 100 megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, outside of Houston. The giant battery will plug into the Texas power grid, providing backup to a system that last month suffered a devastating failure when a severe winter storm knocked generation offline at the same time as demand soared. Tesla introduced its Powerwall home batteries in 2016; the Gambit battery would store enough energy to power 20,000 homes during summer peak hours, and is expected to be operational on June 1st. Blackouts are becoming increasingly common as climate change exposes the energy grid’s vulnerability to climate change, and battery-supported microgrids are increasingly seen as a critical backup for lifesaving systems. (Bloomberg $, NPR)