The first reason why customers buy the YouSolar PowerBloc is an obvious one: people hate losing power. But the supply of electricity that we have been taking for granted is becoming less and less reliable as power companies struggle to cope with storms, heat waves and wildfires. With homes increasingly electrifying, everything depends on power – not just the lights and fridge but also the cooktop, heat pump and vehicle charging.

YouSolar has sold a $264,000 PowerBloc to the owner of one of the most iconic houses on California’s Big Sur coast. When we met with the customer at his home to seal the deal, three magnificent California condors circled in the clouds above the property. Why would a homeowner consider spending more than a quarter million dollars on an energy resilience solution? Sure, who wants a multi-million dollar home with warm soda in the fridge? But the primary reason for purchasing this PowerBloc was fire protection.

The dawn of the age of electrification in the late 19th century saw a standoff between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. Edison promoted Direct Current (DC). Westinghouse swore by Alternating Current (AC). As the two electricity magnates disparaged each other’s technology as inferior and unsafe, the confrontation escalated into the War of the Currents.  Westinghouse emerged victorious, and the world’s power grids were built on Alternating Current. But the paradigm of electricity generation, distribution and consumption is changing rapidly.

Ice storms in Texas and blizzards in the Northeastern United States have been regular occurrences that bring down power lines and cause outages. The most recent winter freeze in the southern United States left thousands in Texas without power. In California, electric utilities have been challenged to keep the power on during summer and fall due to wildfires and heat waves.

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is growing exponentially worldwide and their triumph over the internal combustion engine looks almost inevitable. But some skeptics are still not convinced. The most-voiced concern has shifted from range anxiety to the availability and cost of the raw materials needed to make batteries the central piece of this mobility revolution. But high battery costs would not only put the brakes on EVs. They could also slow down the transition to decentralized power that YouSolar is pioneering.