I was interested in trying to find some sort of power backup situation,” he said. Now, Kovar has a setup from Ford that allows drivers of certain F-150 models to plug their vehicle directly into their electric meter to power parts of their home during an outage.

Data published by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) indicates that rapid deployment across major regional grids has driven a series of generation and capacity records during the first six months of the year.

A large Digital Realty data center in Ashburn, Virginia turned on diesel generators over the July 4 weekend to deal with a strained grid.