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Tesla Powerwalls and other home batteries are proving extremely useful in today’s Texas power outages after a snowstorm.
Home battery packs have gained popularity in recent years by combining them with solar home systems to optimize the use of solar energy.
Some also use household batteries, like the Tesla Powerwall, to provide backup power in the event of an outage.
The events that led to blackouts in some areas led to the rapid adoption of the relatively new company.
Tesla Powerwalls became extremely popular in Australia in 2016 after bad weather severely damaged the power grid and created major power outages.
The same happened in California in 2019 when wildfires put great strain on the grid and electric utilities had to shut off power to homes.
Today, the Texas power grid is collapsing following a snowstorm that affected many important infrastructure on the grid.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has shamelessly politicized the situation, which has already killed more than 20 people, blaming frozen wind turbines, saying it was an example of why the Green New Deal is doomed.
This is despite the fact that the Texas grid, which is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), confirmed that the majority of the diminished capacity came from thermal power plants (coal and natural gas).
Whatever the reason, the result is the same: people are deprived of electricity in freezing temperatures.
Home battery owners have been luckier.
Several of them have posted videos like this, showing entire neighborhoods in the dark, with the lighted detached house being the one with a domestic battery:
Houston Sunrun customer and employee Robert Soldat has a home solar and battery system that provided nearly 46 hours of backup power during rotating blackouts.
He said
“Honestly, I can’t imagine how bad it would have been without my battery.”
He is not alone. Several Tesla Powerwall owners report very useful backup capability (via Reddit):
Sunrun has partnered with Tesla to install Powerwall home battery packs with its solar installations.
The situation is likely to stimulate demand for home battery packs, but the availability of the most popular solutions, such as Tesla Powerwall and LG Resu, has already been limited.
Tesla has guided an increase in Powerwall’s production, but has struggled to catch up with demand.
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