After Irma, Solar Kept Florida Homes and City's Traffic Lights Running

"By using energy storage with solar panels, some homeowners were able to go off-grid, showing how distributed power could speed future storm recovery. "

"Just after midnight on Sept. 11, Eugenio Pereira awoke to the sound of tropical-storm-force winds slamming his Gainesville, Florida, home. Hurricane Irma had arrived. At 1:45 a.m., the power flickered out, and he was in total darkness.

Unlike large swaths of Florida that were facing days if not weeks without electricity, Pereira knew he would have power when the sun rose. He had installed rooftop solar panels two weeks before the storm, along with an inverter that allows him to use power from the solar panels without being connected to the grid. The next morning, he plugged an extension cord into the inverter, flipped it on, and let his 7-kilowatt rooftop solar array do the rest. He was able to use his appliances and his Wi-Fi, so he could continue his work as a home-based IT consultant while the neighborhood waited for grid power to came back on.

'We didn't have sun at all the day after the hurricane, but even with clouds, it was enough,' he said."

Lyndsey Gilpin reports for InsideClimate News September 15, 2017.