Free Batteries for Low-Income House-Holds to Fight California Blackouts

PV MagazineAugust 24, 2020700

Summary:

Sunrun and Grid Alternatives have partnered to provide free solar energy storage systems to low-income residents in California’s wild-fire prone areas. The solar installer is providing low-income homeowners with its Brightbox solar battery system.

Main Article:

Free Batteries for Low-Income House-Holds to Fight California Blackouts

The announcement that Sunrun and GRID Alternatives are partnering to provide free energy storage systems to low-income residents in California’s wild-fire prone areas could not have come at a more critical or opportune moment. The state is reeling under the triple threat of wildfires, heat waves and the potential for rolling blackouts, with low-income residents most heavily impacted by all three but least likely to be able to afford backup power.

On its side of the partnership, top residential solar installer Sunrun will provide low-income homeowners with its Brightbox solar battery system as a standalone solar installation charged from the grid. The solar power system uses the Tesla Powerwall battery — rated at 5 kW, 13.5 kWh — enough power to ride out an outage of several hours keeping essential lights and appliances on, and cell phones charged. Ten years of monitoring and maintenance will also be included.

The partnership’s first targets are the Los Angeles region and the San Joaquin Valley in Central California, areas where GRID has already begun working with community organizations on outreach to potential customers.

Installing standalone batteries is a first for both Sunrun and GRID, a nonprofit focused on bringing solar power to disadvantaged communities, but also raises a tricky question. Why shouldn’t the nation’s top for-profit and nonprofit solar installers go for the far more resilient option of providing vulnerable, low-income customers with full solar power and storage systems?

The answer lies in California’s solar battery incentive program, and its Equity Resiliency carve-out, which is being used to fund the free-battery offer. The generous incentive — $1,000 per kilowatt — can only be used for storage, and eligibility is limited to low-income residents in wildfire or outage prone areas, as defined by state criteria. According to the program website, state funding for the Equity Resiliency incentives through 2024 will total $612 million.

“Storage is critical to energy equity,” Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich said in the partnership announcement, pointing to the compound challenges low-income households face in keeping the lights on in emergency situations or extreme weather. A study from the California Energy Commission shows that low-income households in the state may spend three-times more of their income on energy costs than higher earners, yet be unable to afford air conditioning or heating. A prolonged power outage could also mean spoiled food and medications that are expensive to replace.

Responding to email questions from pv magazine, Sunrun laid out the larger, grid benefits of residential standalone batteries. At least in California, batteries charged from the grid during daytime hours, when solar power output peaks, are still getting about 30% of their power from clean energy, essentially acting as mini-sponges to soak up excess solar power.

Storing solar energy where it is used also lowers risks for utilities and the communities they serve, the company said, flattening demand peaks so less electricity is traveling far distances over transmission lines in dry, wildfire-prone areas. California’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, only recently emerged from 18 months of bankruptcy caused by the steep liability damages the utility paid victims of catastrophic fires caused by its equipment in 2017 and 2018.

Despite its second-quarter losses, Sunrun’s partnership with GRID — and foray into standalone storage — shows the company continuing to expand its position as the nation’s largest residential solar installer and exploring new options for growth going forward. In addition to its merger with Vivint, Sunrun also recently announced a joint venture with South Korea’s SK E&S to develop technology and systems for whole-home electrification.

Get creative and design your own rooftop solar system by going to HahaSmart and using the design DIY tool and see how much the system will cost using the price checker tool.

Solar system price checker

Comments

Design Your Solar Home

START

Hot spots

12 3

Input your address to see if it is solar friendly and how much you can save with solar.

Great. Your address is perfect for solar. Solar incentive is still available. Select monthly utility cost and calculate the size of solar system you will need now.

Whoa ! Going solar is definitely a smart decision.

kw System size years Payback period Lifetime savings

No money down, 100% finance is available.

adv

Get the Best Solar Batteries on the Market Here!

Do not show this information again.