Earlier this summer, Californians faced a crippling heat wave, and the prospect of power blackouts and brownouts. But the state came through the potential energy crisis, thanks to a kind of power storage that’s new to many – solar batteries.
Storing power collected with solar panels isn’t new tech, but its deployment by power plants and homeowners is growing. And what’s happened in California could one day help Texans avoid another power grid outage, says tech expert Omar Gallaga.
Highlights from this segment:
– A change in how solar panel users are compensated when they sell energy back to the California power grid has recently made storing power in batteries more attractive.
– California generated more than 10,000 megawatts (enough to power more than 10 million homes) of power during the recent heat wave using solar batteries.
– Tesla’s entry into the solar battery market in 2015 also gave California’s battery industry a boost.
– In Texas, most utilities offer solar panel owners incentives to sell power back to the grid, and batteries are becoming more available.
