Many people are now installing arrays of batteries at their homes. As of April, more than half of rooftop solar buyers in California chose to install batteries with their solar systems so that when the grid goes down, the house doesn’t. Nationally, sales of these solar-plus-battery systems jumped in the U.S. last year, according to Wood Mackenzie, a consulting firm.
They expect 27% of new home solar systems in the U.S. this year to be paired with storage, almost doubling the share of buyers, 14%, that chose this option last year. These systems easily cost thousands of dollars, but solar and battery prices have fallen, bringing them within reach of more people. Government incentives help, too.
On the portable side, “solar generators” and boxes known as solar power stations are becoming more popular. They are not truly generators because they do not generate electricity, instead they store it for when it’s needed. Users have to prioritize certain devices or appliances during an outage, to avoid draining the battery.
One, called the “Patriot Generator,” and marketed on 4Patriots.com, costs about $2,500. It holds enough energy to run a refrigerator for 19 hours, medical devices for 15 hours or personal electronics for over 100 hours.
The companies Yeti, Bluetti and Jackery also sell these power stations — basically larger versions of the power banks people use to keep phones charged on the go. Weighing around 40 to 60 pounds, they recharge by plugging in or from the sun.
“A lot of people start with a power station of that size, and they might use it for camping, they might use it for recreation, tailgating,” said Brian Essenmacher, North America head of business development at EcoFlow, which also designs products that can be used for recreational vehicles and homes that are not connected to the grid. “I could plug probably a couple of deep freezers and a refrigerator into this, and it would run it for a day plus.”
The number of days when people need these backup solutions is growing as human-caused climate change intensifies and storms, freezes and heat waves strain the nation’s aging electric grid, experts say.
The average person in the U.S. experienced 16% more disruptions in 2022 than in 2013, according to the most recent data from the Energy Information Administration. On average, it took about four hours to bring power back online in 2022, one hour longer than in 2013, the agency reported.
Half of U.S. outages caused by major events last longer than 12 hours, and more than a third last longer than a day, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
That translates to more days when outdoor air is affected by people firing up their generators. Days of record-breaking heat for example, when demand for air conditioning can bring on blackouts, are often bad air days.
“If we are talking about the heat waves, that’s almost guaranteed high ozone,” which is harmful to people’s health, said Max Zhang, an engineering professor at Cornell University. Hot days are when “you’ll see the worst impact of diesel generator emissions,” he said.
Diesel particle pollution, or soot, is also a carcinogen. Diesel and gasoline-burning generators emit nitrogen oxides as well, which can trigger asthma. They also let off planet-warming carbon dioxide.
Jason Benedict moved to Berkley, Michigan, a suburb north of Detroit, from Oregon in 2020. He’s already gone through several outages in his new state.
The ice storms in February 2022 were the worst. He lost power for over 5 days and had to throw away food. He tried to keep part of one room warm enough for himself and his dog, then ended up leaving his house to stay with family nearby. The power came back on, only for weather to take it down again for another two days.
Over the last decade, the number of weather-related power outages has almost doubled, according to Climate Central. Most major power outages between 2000 and 2023 were caused by extreme weather, and 14 percent of those were caused by tropical cyclones and hurricanes.
Some of the counties with the highest risk for more frequent power outages — like Broward County, Fla., Wilkinson County, Miss., and Hyde County, N.C. — also have the highest levels of social vulnerability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those counties have demographic and social-economic factors, like poverty and lack of transportation access, that can adversely affect communities that face natural disasters.
Joan Casey, an associate professor of public health at the University of Washington, said power outages amplify risk for people with underlying health conditions. Lack of power can quickly take people that are vulnerable, such as those who use electricity-dependent respirators, from relative safety to a dangerous situation.
An Environmental Science & Technology study published in May sought to understand the public health impacts of a concurrent heat wave and blackout in three major American cities. The study found that if a multiday heat wave and electrical grid failure occurred simultaneously in Phoenix, the city’s residents would be in extreme danger.
Half of Phoenix’s 1.6 million residents would need urgent medical attention, and 1% of the population, or 13,250 people would die. The study said this would create a crisis for the city with fewer than 3,000 emergency room beds.
The impacts of an event of this magnitude are expected to become substantially worse in the coming decades — with deaths and illnesses doubling by 2085 — due to rising temperatures as a result of climate change. Incidences of power grid failures and resulting outages across the United States more than doubled from 2015 to 2021, the study said, with most occurring in the summertime.
Meanwhile, Phoenix ended its streak on Monday after 31 straight days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees. The previous record was set in 1974 after the city had 18 consecutive days of 110-degree or hotter temperatures.
My guess is that blackouts are driving even more demand for Generac’s products:
https://x.com/pwrhungry/status/1828427928100839467