Texas vs. the Heat: How Home Solar Panels and Battery Backups Saved the Day
As an electrician who has wired homes across Texas for decades, I’ve never seen demand for power skyrocket like this past summer. Relentless heat waves drove our air conditioners full blast, pushing the grid operator (ERCOT) to a new record peak of about 85,931 megawatts on August 20. In years past that kind of surge would have led to blackouts. But this time something different happened: Texas set records for how much solar energy and battery power it used to keep the lights on. In other words, our grid was literally bolstered by sunshine and storage in a way we’d never seen before.
In fact, 2023 was already a punishing year. Austin baked under 44 consecutive days over 100°F, and Dallas endured a 19-day streak above 105°F. Every sweltering day pushed electricity demand higher. Yet by late August 2024, ERCOT never asked Texans to conserve power even once – a dramatic turnaround from summer 2023. How did we avoid crisis? The answer was simple: rooftop solar panels and battery backups stepped up in a big way....
