Energy Storage Nation: Home Batteries in California and Beyond

From California to Texas to Florida, more homeowners want home batteries.

It's 2020, and home battery systems are taking center stage.

Both solar and storage had record-setting years in 2019, but this year is predicted to be the best one yet.

Ben Mayer is CP of residential storage of SunBug Solar in Massachusetts, and he definitely agrees.

"I bet you we'll look at 2020 in retrospect a year from now and say, 'Oh, 2020 was the year we started to see some serious residential storage deployment.'" - Ben Mayer, SunBug Solar

Compared to California, the solar + storage markets in states like Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida are still in their awkward adolescent years... but they're growing up fast. These maturing markets are still looking to California for a preview of their states' renewable energy future, and for the wisdom that has come with the Golden State's experience.

California's path to home batter penetration hasn't always been smooth. Let's start there.

California Rises Strong Out of Crisis

California is the country's largest energy storage market (as well as solar market). It's also the site of the longest, most widespread planned power outages of the past year.

We can't draw any concrete conclusions from the state's recent outages, but anecdotally, it's clear that times were tough, and homeowners were looking for alternative ways to power their homes. **It's no coincidence that WoodMac reported an 18% growth of the residential battery market between Q2 and Q3. **

With (presumably) many more outages on the horizon, Californians decided they weren't going to go quietly into the dark, and started storing their own power. And other states were paying attention.

The fires in California made national news... and so did the power outages. This caused nation-wide interest in home batteries to hit some seriously high levels. One state that tuned in was Florida.

Florida's Unprecedented Third Quarter

When it comes to home batteries, Florida couldn't exactly be called an early adopter. But In 2019's third quarter, they skyrocketed to second in the residential energy storage installation numbers nation-wide (behind California, of course.)

Florida's energy market is considerably different than California's. Floridians use a lot of energy... and most of it is being sucked straight into the air conditioners.

In an interview with GreenTech Media, Goldin Solar CEO Daren Goldin said,

"In Florida, the air conditioner is baseline... a lot of people have generators on their minds after the hurricanes in the last two decades: If you already have solar, then adding batteries to the mix is like buying a geneartion that is free fuel for life and no maintenance."

Sounds pretty perfect. The hurricanes in Florida are a big deal when it comes to residential energy storage. Solar is great, but energy storage provides Florida residents with peace of mind when hurrican season comes around, and air conditioning falls under threat.

So with a little push from the California news cycle, Floridians got up and got themselves some home batteries. Now, hurricane season poses less of a threat to their power sources.

Texans know a little something about hurricanes, too.

Tesla Powerwall home battery system installations have ramped up in Texas, too, at least partially in response to hurricane-related fears. The normally sunny skies of Texas make solar a smart, consistent power source, but even midwestern states, like Iowa, have seen an uptick in home battery demand, despite less economic advantage. The flooding and power outages in the midwest have motivated homeowners to opt for energy storage, whatever the cost.

Basically, everyone everwhere just wants to protect their power.

We get it. We really do. That's why Swell created EnergyShield, power protection for as little ast $1 a day. EnergyShield keeps you and your family safe from grid failure and power outages... forever. Access to energy should be reliable and renewable. Find out more here.