New Orleans-based Solar Alternatives has been installing rooftop solar panels along the Gulf Coast for 17 years.

For most of that time, only about a quarter of the company's customers chose to bolster their solar equipment with backup batteries that would allow their homes or businesses to function during a power outage.

That changed in 2021, when Hurricane Ida left thousands of homes and businesses in Louisiana without power for weeks. Today, 75% of Solar Alternatives' customers buy batteries.

“During Ida, not everyone with batteries had a perfect experience, but people who used them went weeks without a grid in some cases and had power," said Jeffrey Cantin, Solar Alternatives owner. "Those stories started getting out, and that’s when people really started seeing the tech proven out.”

See Full Page