In San Diego, Rooftop Solar Energy Systems Can Help Fight Blackouts

Southern California is notorious for rolling blackouts during the summer months, when extreme heat prompts residents to crank up their air conditioning and unintentionally overload their local power grid.  This excess of electricity extracted from the same grid poses an extreme hazard to the electrical generation system, and power companies will often cut the power to the entire grid for safety reasons.

Rolling blackouts in California typically don’t last more than an hour or two, but they’re still extremely undesirable and there are a number of ways around them.  This summer, the California Independent System Operator (ISO) issued a request for users of the power grid to conserve their energy use between the hours of 11am and 6pm and keep their air conditioners set above seventy-eight degrees.  This keeps power use to a minimum when it’s normally at a maximum.

Another way California residents can simultaneously protect their neighborhoods from blackouts and ensure that they themselves are not affected is to have a San Diego solar installer install rooftop solar panels in their homes or businesses.  Home solar systems offer a completely self-sufficient way of powering a house and can drastically reduce or completely eliminate their electricity bills.  With fewer people relying on the city power grid, rolling blackouts are significantly less likely to occur – and homeowners with a system of solar panels have security in knowing that they won’t be without power.  Additionally, their excess power will be sent back to the grid (with a credit provided to them) for use by non-solar energy San Diego buildings.