When the power goes out for Floridians, it’s more than just lighting a candle and waiting for the storm to pass. It’s the heat. A fitful sleep, no air flow and desperate calls to the utility company.
“To be without AC is maybe uncomfortable for one person and is life threatening for another,” said Susan Glickman, vice president of policy and partnerships at the Miami-based CLEO Institute.
Hurricanes mean Florida has the greatest duration of electric power interruptions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s latest report. Nationally, grid failures, or “blackouts” have more than doubled since 2015. In regions that rely on air-conditioning, the failures can lead to increases in heat-related deaths.
Florida got a severe wake-up call following Hurricane Irma, when 12 people died in a South Florida nursing home that was without AC for days after the storm. Then-Gov. Rick Scott signed a new law requiring emergency generators for all nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
But emergency generators are not the ultimate solution in a warming world. Increasingly, Floridians are turning to more reliable and sustainable alternatives.
Rooftop solar panels with battery storage systems are an example. “A battery operates in a similar way to a generator except it doesn’t need liquid fuel,” said David Cranston, Florida Clean Energy manager for the Environmental Defense Fund.
The battery cells store excess energy the panels produce, and the output can then be used when the sun isn't shining. Unused energy can be sent back to the grid, with compensation to customers. When the grid goes out, the customer’s electrical system can isolate itself, Cranston said, and continue powering the home.
Some Floridians now rely on their electric vehicles for backup power in the wake of hurricanes. The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck, for one, can provide full power to a home for three days, according to the company. (Longer if you don’t run the AC.)
With an optional home integration system, the Lightning “automatically kicks in to power your home if the grid goes down,” said Sam Schembari, Ford electric vehicle communications manager.
“Once power is restored, the system automatically reverts back to utility power,” Schembari said. “Based on an average U.S. home at 30 kilowatt-hours of use per day, F-150 Lightning with extended-range battery provides full home power for up to three days, or as long as 10 days when used in conjunction with solar power or rationing.”
Another benefit of electric vehicles in emergencies is not having to face gas shortages. In the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Cranston said electric vehicle drivers had more freedom than people who drive a traditional vehicle.
Longer-term, community-wide solutions include resilience hubs with microgrids. They proved able to protect entire neighborhoods in Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. “A microgrid is a smaller, localized energy grid that can isolate itself from the main grid and just provide power to the customers that are on this localized grid,” Cranston said.
The Medley subdivision in the Southshore Bay community near Tampa has its own microgrid where every home has solar and storage systems connected to share power. This microgrid operates mostly independently from the main grid and has maintained power through several major hurricanes, including Ian in 2022 and Helene and Milton last year.
A larger community with a solar-storage microgrid, Babcock Ranch in southwest Florida, kept the lights on despite a direct hit from Hurricane Ian, which plunged much of the surrounding area into darkness.
Yet despite its sunny capacity for solar and bullseye for hurricanes, Florida has been slow to adopt the microgrids, with only 10 installed statewide as of this fall, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.
Unlike other big, energy-intense states like California and Texas, Florida doesn’t have a renewable portfolio standard, which requires utilities to generate a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have such a standard, with an additional eight states adding a clean energy standard – a requirement that a percentage of a utility’s electricity comes from low- to zero-carbon emitting energy sources – according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
Natural gas still fuels nearly three-quarters of Florida’s total electricity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Even though solar has become cheaper than gas, Glickman said lowering the cost to meet energy demands remains the biggest challenge.
