One Solution to a Texas-Sized Problem

The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a weekly “green tip” to our readers.

The extensive weather-driven electrical outage in Texas that left millions of Texans without power for days last week provides a stark reminder of why shifting our reliance from overtaxed and unreliable electrical grids to green energy is vitally important.

Texas is far from alone: Communities throughout Southern California, including the Palisades, have long contended with power outages, blackouts and brownouts caused by extreme weather, fires and other events. These will only continue—and worsen—as our energy needs increase and our climate warms.

It’s not too late to take action to improve your energy resilience, however. For example, installing solar panels and battery storage in your home or business is an efficient and environmentally friendly way to power your energy needs and decrease your dependence on the electrical grid.

Though the upfront cost of these systems is not insignificant, solar and battery storage systems will pay for themselves over time through energy savings and may increase your property value. There are also an increasing number of Solar-as-a-Service providers with no upfront cost.

Several communities in California and elsewhere are also developing “community microgrids” to provide energy resiliency and alleviate loads on the electrical grid, especially during high-demand periods. Microgrids allow participating residents with solar and home battery storage to island—or disconnect—themselves from the electrical grid when demand is peaking, enabling utilities to reduce their grid load and potentially avoid outages and microgrid customers to keep their electricity flowing from panels and battery storage even if the grid goes down. In some communities, microgrid customers are also able to sell energy back to their electrical utility.

Recognizing the many benefits of solar energy, Resilient Palisades plans to launch an initiative soon to promote the installation of solar panels and battery storage in homes and businesses in our community as the first phase of a plan to develop a Palisades Community Microgrid.

Stay tuned for more information on this initiative.