An aging utility grid and increasingly common extreme weather events have caused power outages to become more common. For example, some utility companies have been cutting off power during times when threats of wildfires are particularly high. These public safety power shutoffs are designed to help prevent electrical equipment from causing wildfires but result in numerous homes and businesses losing power. 

Although backup generators are an option for producing electricity during power outages, they rely on fossil fuels, are noisy, and create carbon emissions. As the cost of solar energy storage falls, solar batteries are becoming an increasingly popular way to keep the lights on during blackouts and store excess energy. These solar energy storage systems can also help with overall grid operation by smoothing out electricity supply and demand.

In some areas, there is so much installed solar capacity that electricity is wasted when solar power production exceeds demand. The duck curve is a graph that shows energy demand and solar energy production and is shaped like a duck. Unfortunately, occasional energy overproduction can lead to waste. However, solar energy storage systems help avoid this by storing energy when demand is low, and making it available when solar production is low and power demand is high.

Types Of Solar Energy Storage 

There are many different energy storage technologies at different phases of development. Some are better suited for smaller mobile applications, while some require a lot of space and are better for large-scale applications. Certain technologies can store energy for a few hours, while others are better suited for long-term energy storage.