Solar energy is one of the most powerful, renewable, and cost-effective forms of clean energy, offering reliable and money-saving energy for homes and businesses as long as the sun shines. After installing your solar panels and seeing exciting decreases in your monthly power bill, you may think you’ll always have access to the power generated by your panels and have nothing to worry about when your neighborhood’s power goes out. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
Power outages are increasing in frequency and severity around the country, with about 80% of major outages reported between 2000 and 2023 attributed to severe weather. Our power grids weren’t built with today’s weather in mind, making them more vulnerable to worsening weather patterns. Many states are also implementing power cut-off strategies to minimize the added effects of downed power lines during severe weather and emergencies.
Even with a solar array that knocks your power bill down to $0, your home will be just as affected by a power outage as your neighbor’s. We’ll explore why this is and how you can improve your system for more energy resilience in the event of no power.
Why Don’t Solar Panels Work in an Outage?
Most solar setups are tied to your municipal electrical grid and feed excess power back to the grid through an inverter — this is where your electricity credits come from. However, in the event of an outage, your inverter automatically shuts down the flow of power both to and from your home, leaving you without power. This important safety feature protects utility workers who need to repair lines or other equipment and can’t do so while electricity is flowing. If your system were to keep feeding power back through the lines, it would create a potentially deadly electrical hazard for the workers.
How to Use Solar Power During an Outage
With the traditional grid-tied solar energy setup, your panels may keep generating electricity, but there’s nowhere for it to go… unless you have a way of storing the energy yourself or cutting your system off from the grid. There are multiple options for establishing secure power in your home that will keep you comfortable even after an extended power outage.
Off-Grid Solar System
As the name implies, this solar array keeps your home completely off the electrical grid, so you’ll no longer be affected by power outages or electricity rates. This option is most common for homes in rural areas with limited access to municipal power, but it can be implemented anywhere. Off-grid systems come with a hefty up-front investment to set up enough solar panels and energy storage to last through bad weather, cloudy days, and other times light is scarce, though your dependence on the local grid is reduced to zero.
Battery-Based or Battery Backup System
A middle option exists in between a grid-tied system and an off-grid system. Adding solar energy storage in the form of batteries to your grid-tied system offers more options for energy use in a blackout. Solar batteries store some of the excess power generated by your panels and tuck it away for use later. Though you won’t be receiving as many credits on your energy bill for sending your extra power to the power company, you will have better access to power in the event of an outage. You likely won’t have enough energy to power your whole house, but you’ll have enough for the essentials, and your stored power will work at night or in bad weather conditions.
Solar Inverter Replacement
Every solar panel needs an inverter to convert the power generated by the panel into a current that’s usable by your home or the electrical grid. A huge market for inverters has developed, and some offer the capability to disconnect from the grid in the event of a power outage. This allows your solar setup to continue powering your home without the risk of feeding excess power into the shut-down grid. These solutions only work if the sun keeps shining and typically only generate enough power for a select few appliances rather than your whole home, reducing their true usefulness in a prolonged outage.
Reduce Your Power Dependence with Holu Hou Energy
When you’re ready to add security and resilience to your home’s electrical system, turn to Hawaii’s trusted solar specialist! Holu Hou Energy offers the most advanced solar energy storage solutions available with its HoluPower xP batteries and HoluPower SmartPanel. Hawaii ranks 11th in a list of the most annual power outages as of 2023, and HECO’s Public Safety Power Shutoff program means power blackouts are more common than ever. Take some of the stress of an outage out of the equation with solar energy storage from Holu Hou. Contact us today to get started!
