Proof that decentralized energy devices can deliver reliable power to the grid
by Julian Spector, Greentech Media
Sunrun will get its chance to prove that home batteries and solar panels can stack up against traditional power plants.
The San Francisco-based company won a 20-megawatt bid in the forward capacity auction for ISO New England, which operates the electric grid in six Northeastern states. That auction ensures that enough grid capacity will be online in 2022.
Unlike previous winners, Sunrun did not bid a traditional power plant. Its product is a network of small solar and battery installations that will go into roughly 5,000 customer homes across the region. The company is promising to aggregate across those systems to deliver the necessary power to the grid, while also keeping the host customers happy.
Sunrun has vocally promoted this vision, as it expanded from simply installing solar panels into battery storage and grid services business lines. Many other companies and analysts share the belief that distributed resources, acting together, can provide a cleaner, more resilient and cheaper alternative to centralized grid architectures.
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