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Hurricanes, heat domes, and holding up the grid with home batteries [update]

Tapping into the power of bring-your-own-battery programs

It’s been a year since this piece on home batteries becoming one of the most important tools we have for keeping the lights on during hurricanes, heat waves, and other extreme weather events was published. Since then, the case for VPPs has only gotten stronger, with more utilities than ever putting big money behind distributed batteries and virtual power plants to keep the grid stable during periods of record energy demands.

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Solar gets railed: clever Swiss pilot proves PV panels and trains can coexist

Solar energy from railways shows first positive results in Switzerland

Finding places to deploy new solar panels is often just as challenging as the construction project itself – with productive farmland, open parking lots, and rooftops all offering their own sets of pros and cons, but a recent pilot project suggests that thousands of acres of viable, low-cost land have been hiding in plain sight all along: the space between railroad tracks.

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Home solar in rural America: a storm just took out your power, now what?

There’s no shortage of advice on how to size a home solar and battery system, but most of it assumes a suburban home with city services and outages measured in hours, not days. Rural homes play by different rules, especially during summer storms. When heavy winds take down power lines and your utility prioritizes restoring urban neighborhoods first, having a home battery isn’t about convenience — it’s about damage control.

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Solar is crushing gas growth worldwide, a new report finds

Google solar Texas

Natural gas is losing its grip on the global power mix as countries increasingly turn to cheaper, more secure renewable energy, according to a new report from climate and energy think tank Ember.

Ember’s analysis found that 61 out of 124 economies that generate electricity from gas have already passed peak gas power generation. That includes four G7 countries: the UK, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

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