In February 2021,during a massive blackout in Texas,USA,a man made the news for using his hybrid Ford F-150 pickup truck,a model equipped with a generator,to power his house for three days[1].Other hybrid F-150 owners followed suit,and Ford requested that its Texas dealerships lend out the trucks on their lots so that more people could access these mini-power stations during the week-long disaster[2].That some residents had to rely on their pickup trucks to provide electricity for their homes illustrates the severity of the grid crisis that paralyzed Texas.For an average of 42 h,69%of Texans had no electricity(Fig.1)[3],leaving many homes without heat as temperatures fell to record lows.About half of the population also lacked running water because water plants lost power[3].According to the state’s figures,hypothermia,carbon monoxide poisoning,and other storm-related causes exacerbated by the power outage killed at least 210 people[4],but one analysis put the death toll at 700[5].The economic price tag,including damage to homes and businesses from burst pipes,may be as high as 200 billion USD[6].
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