Tesla Battery Project Seeks To Turn Vermonters’ Homes Into Tiny Power Plants
Credit: Kathleen Masterson for VPR
By Kathleen Masterson, Vermont Public Radio
As our reliance on solar and wind energy grows, so does the challenge of reliability: The wind and sun can’t be turned on and off whenever people need electricity. One part of the solution is energy storage.
That’s why Vermont’s largest utility, Green Mountain Power, is piloting a new project: It’s sold 500 Tesla home batteries to customers, both for the homeowner’s private use, and for the utility to draw on as a source of electricity.
Green Mountain Power is the first utility in the country to pilot the Tesla Powerwall battery in this way.
Both the utility and Tesla are betting that this could be the way of the future, as we increasingly rely on disparate power sources in fields and homes — and not on massive centralized power plants.