It will be windy in the Bay Area this weekend. It will hardly be a storm, but power lines will sway. Fortunately, there are no planned pre-emptive grid shutdowns, also known as “Public Safety Power Shutdowns” (PSPS), to prevent power equipment from starting wildfires.

But an “electric storm” is brewing.

The Guardian recently observed that “Power outages in the US are rising, as climate-related extreme weather strain an already burdened energy grid.

Over the last decade, severe storm outages increased by 74% compared with the previous 10 years.

Downed power lines in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after a hurricane in 2020. Source: The Guardian

High winds, rains, winter storms and tropical cyclones including hurricanes, accounted for 80% of all power interruptions over the last 20 years, a new report from non-profit research group Climate Central shows.”

Texas had the most weather-related power outages.

Michigan, California, and North Carolina followed the state. Many Texans have purchased solar battery systems to back up their homes and businesses. YouSolar spoke with a leading home engineering firm in Texas about customers’ experiences with backup systems. We learned that,

Many battery systems have failed to deliver during recent power outages in the Lone Star state. Instead of lasting days, batteries were out of energy in a few hours.

The reasons for these failures are elementary. These batteries were woefully short of capacity, and generator integration into these systems is either limited or impossible. Love or hate generators; they are critical when the sun hides behind clouds. Only vehicle-to-home integration will change that in the near future.

The YouSolar PowerBloc® is the nanogrid that can weather the brewing electric storms. Deep storage, large solar arrays, seamless generator integration, and soon vehicle-to-home power make it the ultimate independent power system.