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'Big ol' Battery' Can Power a Texas Town for Eight Hours

by Caleb Johnson on April 9, 2010 at 05:25 PM

You know the saying: everything's bigger in Texas. Apparently, that even holds true for batteries. According to DVICE, the border town of Presidio has constructed what it claims is the country's largest battery. Best of all, it's earned the local nickname 'BOB,' which is an acronym for 'big ol' battery.' The room-sized sodium sulfur (NaS) battery can supply the entire town with 4-megawatts of power for eight hours.

Presidio's only line to the electrical grid stretches over 60 miles to Marfa, Texas, and locals were fed up with frequent power outages caused by storms sweeping across the power line. With some help from Electric Transmission Texas, they constructed the $25 million battery, which began charging earlier this week. As Popular Science reports, the ETT has agreed to build a second power line for the town by 2012 that will cost about $44 million but should help to reduce outages in the town.

So, not only does this tiny Texas town get a backup power supply, but it gets a record to brag about, too? Sure, it might be self-proclaimed, but we wouldn't argue with it. After all, Texans have another saying: don't mess with 'em. [From: DVICE and Popular Science]

Tags: battery, electricity, energy, generator, power, presidio, texas, top, weird

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