No more rolling blackouts? This tech is changing Texas forever
Big battery farms are redefining grid stability across the state
Author: Michael Gibson (KIII)
Published: 6:42 PM CDT October 16, 2025
Updated: 6:42 PM CDT October 16, 2025
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas is quietly becoming a powerhouse in the world of battery energy storage and the Coastal Bend is now part of that surge. Massive fields of lithium batteries are rising from the dirt, designed to keep electricity flowing when demand spikes or renewable power drops off.
Just outside Sinton, next to the Steel Dynamics complex off Highway 188, the Pintail Pass Battery Energy Storage System is taking shape. It’s a sprawling, high-voltage site filled with rows of industrial-sized battery units. When it’s online, it will be large enough to power the entire city of Sinton for up to 48 hours. A project built to keep the Texas grid stable when the lights are most at risk of going out.
“When we go to blackout periods and the electric draw gets overloaded, they can pull that electricity out of those storage units and feed it back in,” said San Patricio County Judge David Krebs. “There’s quite a few of them now, and there may be more coming into the county.”
These battery systems act like giant shock absorbers for the grid. They store power when energy demand is low, often at night or during periods of heavy wind or sun, and release it in seconds when demand soars, wind turbines calm, or clouds dim solar panels. That quick-response power is key to preventing rolling blackouts and stabilizing the state’s grid, which serves more than 26 million Texans.
Dr. L.D. Chen, Associate Dean for Research at Texas A&M–Corpus Christi, says other countries have been using grid-scale batteries for years. “Australia’s been doing that. Asian countries, Korea, they’re doing it. And now we’re catching up here in the States,” he said.
Texas now ranks second in the nation for installed battery storage capacity, right behind California but it’s closing the gap fast. The state’s total storage has surged more than 4,000 percent in just four years, driven by open land, streamlined permitting, and falling lithium-ion prices. Billions in federal incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act are also helping supercharge the build-out.
And during last winter’s Winter Storm Heather, those same systems delivered. Analysts estimate battery storage saved Texans $750 million in market costs and kept power flowing to more than 400,000 homes.
San Patricio County officials say more battery projects are already in the pipeline and developers are scouting additional sites. For a region long defined by oil, gas, and heavy industry, this new wave of lithium-powered infrastructure could reshape the energy landscape for decades to come.