Real stories of real people using solar and energy storage to overcome California's blackouts.
And sooner or later, they'll be back.
So some Californians are taking their power into their own hands instead of relying on the unreliable utility companies. They're have solar + storage, and things are going well. Really well.
It doesn't matter if the outage is due to wildfire risks, extreme weather, or just an errant squirrel (yep, that happens), you never really know when the lights will come back on. Wouldn't it be great if they never went out in the first place? Um, yeah. That's why more and more Californians are checking out new solar and energy storage technologies.
This is what Richard Schuh, an architect living in Northern California, said from the comfort of his well-lit home... when a lot of his neighbors were sitting in the dark.
A few years ago, Schuh installed solar panels on their roof, and rounded out their energy security system with a Tesla Powerwall. The home battery is what made all the difference.
In 2017, Schuh and his wife experienced three weeks of power outages after a major fire hit their property. It was devastating.
"We had solar the whole time, but the solar was shut down because it's connected to the grid. So we weren't able to use that even though it was still generating power." Schuh and his wife were incredibly frustrated. Here was a wealth of power at their fingertips that they couldn't access.
When a utility company sends out a warning that power outages may be on the way, that's when batteries charge up. With a fully charged home battery, a power outage is no big deal. The Schuh's energy security system works independenly to generate and store power from the sun. (Power outage? What power outage?)
With solar panels and a home battery, you can create your own energy fortress. Since the sun dishes out power every day, solar panels can harness that power and store it in a home battery. Your battery acts as your own personal power reservoir, holding and storing power on site until the sun goes down, and you need to keep the lights on.
Not only does solar + storage ensure that your home has power, but it can save on energy bills if you're connected to the grid when it is operating the way it's supposed to. Battery owners can take advantage of off-peak electricity rates every. Single. Day.