And new forms of backup power are emerging, especially from electric cars. Ford is partnering with SunRun to combine its new F150 Lightning electric pickup truck with solar and a two-way charger that can use the truck’s battery to power a house. The standard version of the truck comes with a 98-kWh battery, the equivalent of more than seven Tesla Powerwall stationary batteries.

A fire station in Puerto Rico offers a glimpse of what solar and storage can do. After Hurricane Maria cut power for months in 2017, over 40,000 solar systems were installed on the island, often paired with battery storage. One of those is at the fire station in the town of Guánica, which had been unable to receive emergency calls in previous outages.

When Hurricane Fiona’s wind and flooding again knocked out power to most of Puerto Rico in September 2022, the fire station was still operating.

“The solar system is working beautifully!” Sgt. Luis Saez told Canary Media the day after Fiona knocked out power. “We did not lose power all throughout the hurricane.”

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Will Gorman, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Bentham Paulos, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Galen Barbose, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. If you found it interesting, you could subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Read more:
Meet the power plant of the future: Solar + battery hybrids are poised for explosive growth

Can my electric car power my house? Not yet for most drivers, but vehicle-to-home charging is coming

Will Gorman receives funding from the US Department of Energy.

Bentham Paulos receives funding from the US Department of Energy for this work.

Galen Barbose receives funding from the US Department of Energy.