Archive for category: Energy Storage and Health

Wildfire and hurricane season is here and with it comes an influx of weather-related power outages. The health implications of power outages this summer are further compounded this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we look forward to an uncertain future with COVID-19 and energy security, it is important to develop new solutions that will put resilient solar and storage within reach for everyone, including those most vulnerable to power outages and the health impacts that could result from them.

As we evaluate and re-evaluate the undoubtedly substantial and lasting impacts COVID-19 will have on our work and the work of our partners across the country moving forward, it is more evident than ever that resilient power is a critical component to improving health outcomes in the event of a crisis like the world is currently experiencing.

Battery storage has become a key resilience technology in California, reflected in a major policy shift on the use of state incentives.

Energy storage capacity installed this year is expected to top 600 megawatts, more than double the amount of storage deployments in 2018, and annual deployment numbers are forecast to increase another sevenfold over the next five years. Unfortunately, only a small fraction of these storage installations have been developed to the benefit of underserved populations most in need of the economic and resiliency benefits that storage can provide.

The devastating California wildfires and related power outages are already leading to new approaches to energy resiliency that rely on battery storage technologies. This past week, a new model has emerged to accelerate the adoption of solar and storage systems for resilient power.

This month millions of people lost power in California. The blackouts were not due to a natural disaster, but rather the result of utilities, primarily Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), intentionally suspending power to hundreds of thousands of customer accounts in across California. Battery storage and solar PV could provide reliable backup power for those affected by the outages.

Despite not sustaining a direct hit, Hurricane Dorian still left parts of Florida flooded and over 170,000 people without power. In the past, a single extreme weather event has left hundreds of thousands of people in Florida without power, in some cases for more than a week.

As more people opt to receive medical care at home, access to resilient emergency backup power will need to be prioritized and made more accessible, especially to low-income households.

A new research project in Puerto Rico demonstrates that the home health care industry is potentially a new market for solar and battery storage.