As winter storms become stronger and more common, there is no guarantee that a power outage won’t leave you without running water, heat, or electricity. Your neighbors might turn to gas generators, but they are noisy and bad for the environment. Solar panels alone will not keep your electricity on when you lose power, because they are grid-tied, and shut off during a power outages. However, a clean and quiet solar-plus-battery system will keep your important loads running the next time the power goes out.

Whether your solar energy system has battery backup or not, it is still tied to the grid.  However, without a solar battery backup system, your home will draw electricity from the grid whenever your solar panels are not able to keep up with your home's energy needs or when the sun isn’t shining. For homeowners in Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia, that can mean cloudy and rainy days as well as nights. Electricity from the grid isn’t guaranteed to come from a carbon free, renewable source—you could very well be powering your home with electricity generated from nuclear, coal, and natural gas. With solar-plus-battery installation, you can store excess energy generated from your solar panels, rather than sending that excess back to the grid, and use it to run your home when you need it most.  This helps your solar energy system lower your carbon footprint, reduces your grid dependency (but it is still there when you do need it), and helps keep your home running on a renewable energy source—the sun!

Not only can you power your home with solar and battery storage, you can also power your electric vehicle. EV charging with a solar-plus-battery system can help lower your transportation costs and get you where you need to go on clean, renewable energy.

Just like solar panel installation, solar-plus-battery storage are more affordable with the federal solar tax credit, also called the ITC (Investment Tax Credit). The tax credit is worth 26% in 2021 and 2022, 22% in 2023, and ends on January 1, 2024, so act now to take full advantage of these major limited time savings. Plus, with additional solar incentives and solar financing, Sun Path makes finding the best solar solution for your home easy and affordable. Reach out to our local, family-run business today for a free solar quote and read what our customers have to say about working with the Sun Path team.