Virtual power plants

Rooftop solar, batteries, EVs, and smart thermostats could help rein in rising grid costs — if only California could pass policies to make it happen.

The utility’s “virtual power plant” proposal taps an emerging model to replace retiring fossil fuel generation, but advocates say the devil is in the details.

More solar, batteries, and gas microgrids could have helped Houston during last week’s outages. But state leaders and utilities haven’t made them a priority.

Governor Gavin Newsom plans to slash funding for batteries and utility customers to help with grid emergencies — but money for fossil fuel generators keeps flowing.

States are starting to experiment with VPPs to boost clean energy capacity on America's overtaxed grid. Experts broke it down at SXSW in Austin.