Texas battery storage site screening

Who this is for

• Storage developers looking for standalone BESS sites in ERCOT
• Solar developers adding storage to a hybrid site
• Teams sizing the competition around a substation before they spend on studies

A 100 MW battery can sit on a few acres. That makes land easy and location hard. The value of a storage site comes from its grid node, its distance to the substation, and how many other projects are trying to use the same corner of the grid.

Voltane screens Texas parcels for storage with that in mind. Parcel size matters less, while distance to substations and to 138 kV and higher lines matters more, and the ERCOT queue nearby is front and center.

What Voltane checks

Every layer below is public data. The map and every brief show the source and date next to each value. Where a value is missing it reads "unknown", never zero.

How it works

1. Choose the storage project type. The size filter uses a much smaller land floor than solar.
2. Each parcel shows its distance to the nearest substation and transmission line, with voltage, measured from the parcel.
3. The ERCOT queue for the county shows how many projects and how many MW are waiting, by fuel and by status, with the report month.
4. Existing generators from EIA-860 show what is built nearby.
5. Flood zones, mapped wetlands and protected land are taken out before a parcel can match.

What Voltane does not tell you

Voltane is a screening tool. Every result is screening only, not a site suitability determination. Before you commit money to a site you still need:

• How much power you can inject or withdraw at a substation. Only ERCOT and the transmission owner can tell you that, through studies.
• Nodal prices or revenue. Voltane does not forecast storage revenue.
• Whether the substation owner will allow a new bay, or what upgrades it would need.
• Fire code, setback or local permitting rules for batteries in a given county or city.
• Title, easements or surface rights on the parcel.

See the output

The sample Opportunity Brief is the first page of a real Texas solar brief: the shortlist, the open questions and the source and date on every fact.

Questions buyers ask

How much land does a battery storage project need?

Much less than solar. Voltane uses a small acreage floor for storage so that compact parcels near substations stay in the results.

Does the ERCOT queue tell me there is room on the grid?

No. The queue shows how many projects have asked to connect in a county. It is a competition signal. Many queued projects never get built, and the queue says nothing about grid headroom.

How current is the queue data?

Voltane reads ERCOT's monthly GIS Report. The pages show the report month next to every number. The current build uses the August 2026 report, published 2026-09-01.

Are substation names shown?

Substations come from OpenStreetMap. Where the map shows one, you see its location and, where tagged, its voltage.

Can I screen a hybrid solar plus storage site?

Yes. Pick the hybrid type on the map and Voltane applies the solar land rules and the storage grid rules together.

What should I do after a site matches?

Order an ERCOT screening study, check title, and walk the land. The Opportunity Brief lists the open questions for each site.

Further reading

• Where Texas can still connect
• Texas has more than one grid

Other ways to use Voltane

• Texas solar site selection
• Texas data center site selection, power first
• ERCOT grid and land data, read the right way
• Texas county siting data
• US nuclear candidate sites