Batteries are powering defection from the electric grid - The San Francisco Examiner

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For years, Treasure Island residents have suffered blackouts, leaving the island without power for hours. Calls to update the aging infrastructure are ignored. Now, residents are turning to solar and battery storage to keep critical services running.

They call it grid defection.

Though the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Treasure Island Development Authority have completed some near-term projects in recent months, including a new switchyard, The City says it can’t fix the problem entirely until the plans for a massive redevelopment of the island are complete – a process that has been decades in the making.

Kathleen Goforth, a resident of San Carlos, recently retrofitted her house to be energy efficient for the climate. She severed her gas line, installed all electric appliances, including her water heater, and has solar panels soaking up the sun on her roof. “Minimizing my impact on the planet is something I’ve been working on since I was like 13 years old,” she said. “It’s kind of a lifelong quest.

While Goforth remains connected to the grid, she said her decision to store power was also motivated by what she saw as the writing on the wall: Intensifying wildfire seasons and heat waves that are starting to cause power shut-offs and wreak havoc on the grid – stressing the physical infrastructure while also revving up the demand for energy to power things like air conditioning.

While the rooftop solar industry has exploded in the last decade, “the thing that has now made defection even more tangible is the falling costs of batteries,” said Gorman.

 

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