Want a solar home? Consider batteries.

Most solar homes are still dependent on the grid, so when the grid fails, they lose power. But that's beginning to change as the solar industry begins to focus on battery storage as the next 'green' frontier.

The Christian Science Monitor

When superstorm Sandy barreled into Long Island last October, it flooded Raina Brett Russo’s home.

“Basically, the ocean and the bay came together in my living room,” Ms. Russo says. “It hit us really hard.”

The basement and first floor were underwater, three cars were flooded, and to the amazement of her neighbors, the power did not come back on any sooner than theirs. With 10.4 kilowatts’ worth of solar panels bolted to her roof and undamaged, shouldn’t the Russo house have been an oasis of light and power?