The increase in severe weather events across the country, from hurricanes and floods to wildfires, has caused longer duration outages and growing demand for resiliency. In 2018, excluding major events, the average US electricity customer experienced one outage and lost power for 142 minutes. Adding major events to the equation boosts those numbers to 1.6 outages and 327 minutes without power.23 California’s recent wildfire threat and the associated power shutdowns have increased pressure on utility companies to boost resiliency on the West Coast in particular. And in 2020, we expect to see utilities and their customers across the country increasingly turn to microgrids, often including solar and storage, to support critical facilities. Reconstruction efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico are also focusing on using DERs to build in resilience.24
The rapid growth of DERs such as solar PV, batteries, and microgrids has introduced new technology options that support grid resiliency. These technologies enable building resiliency into the grid from the “bottom up,” or customer sites. In fact, storage has started to play a critical role in resiliency as more homes and businesses have increased energy storage installations in the United States. In the first half of 2019, behind-the-meter installations were up 72 percent from the previous year.25 Although they’re falling rapidly, battery storage prices are still a concern. But there are efforts to make battery storage more competitive. In April 2019, lawmakers introduced the Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act of 2019 in the US House and Senate. The legislation would make standalone energy storage eligible for the ITC by itself, rather than qualifying only when part of a qualified solar facility.26
2020 Renewable Energy Industry Outlook
