Electric Vehicles Can Now Power Your Home for Three Days

There may soon come a time when your car "also serves as the hub of your personal power plant," writes the Washington Post's climate columnist. And then they tell the story of a New Mexico man named Nate Graham who connected a power strip and a $150 inverter to his Chevy Bolt EV during a power outage: The Bolt's battery powered his refrigerator, lights and other crucial devices with ease. As the rest of his neighborhood outside Albuquerque languished in darkness, Graham's family life continued virtually unchanged. "It was a complete game changer making power outages a nonissue," says Graham, 35, a manager at a software company. "It lasted a day-and-a-half, but it could have gone much longer." Today, Graham primarily powers his home appliances with rooftop solar panels and, when the power goes out, his Chevy Bolt. He has cut his monthly energy bill from about $220 to $8 per month. "I'm not a rich person, but it was relatively easy," says Graham "You wind up in a magical position with no [natural] gas, no oil and no gasoline bill." Graham is a preview of what some automakers are now promising anyone with an EV: An enormous home battery on wheels that can reverse the flow of electricity to power the entire home through the main electric panel. Beyond serving as an emissions-free backup generator, the EV has the potential of revolutionizing the car's role in American society, transforming it from an enabler of a carbon-intensive existence into a key step in the nation's transition into renewable energy. Some crucial context from the article: Since 2000, the number of major outages in America's power grid "has risen from less than two dozen to more than 180 per year, based on federal data, the Wall Street Journal reports... Residential electricity prices, which have risen 21 percent since 2008, are predicted to keep climbing as utilities spend more than $1 trillion upgrading infrastructure, erecting transmission lines for renewable energy and protecting against extreme weather." About 8% of U.S. homeowners have installed solar panels, and "an increasing number are adding home batteries from companies such as LG, Tesla and Panasonic... capable of storing energy and discharging electricity." Ford's "Lightning" electrified F-150 "doubles as a generator... Instead of plugging appliances into the truck, the truck plugs into the house, replacing the grid." "The idea is companies like Sunrun, along with utilities, will recruit vehicles like the F-150 Lightning to form virtual power plants. These networks of thousands or millions of devices can supply electricity during critical times."

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