National Geographic has an article on a large scale sodium
sulphur battery being built in Texas - Texas Pioneers Energy
Storage in Giant Battery. Presidio, Texas, has one link to U.S.
electrical power, stretching some 60 miles (100 kilometers) from
Marfa in the high desert to the banks of the Rio Grande. Built
in 1948, the transmission line was around when Rock Hudson,
Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean walked Marfa’s streets while
filming the epic movie Giant. Electrical storms erupt frequently
in the rugged expanse between Marfa, nearly one mile (1,600
meters) above sea level, and Presidio, on the Mexico border,
“one of the hottest places in the nation,” in the words of city
administrator Brad Newton. “It really creates a situation unique
to our geographic area,” he says. Reliance on a single aging,
transmission line in this hostile terrain has made life in
Presidio different than in most of the United States. Chronic
power outages and electrical fluctuations have been the norm.
And sweltering in the dark has