Palmetto opens battery-only lease plan to all residential contractors

A company called Palmetto has rolled out a new way to add battery backup to a home without paying for it upfront. Normally, buying a home battery outright can cost more than $16,000. Palmetto's new option, called the Energy Backup Plan, is a 12-year subscription instead: you get the battery hardware installed with no upfront payment, and Palmetto handles maintenance and repairs over the life of the plan. It's now available in 25 states, with more expected.

This matters because solar panels alone usually don't keep your lights on during a power outage. Most home solar systems automatically shut off when the grid goes down, so a battery is what actually lets you keep power flowing to your house when utility service is interrupted. Through Palmetto's app, homeowners can set how much backup reserve they want to keep in the battery, and can also use stored energy to avoid paying peak utility rates at certain times of day, a practice sometimes called energy arbitrage.

The plan can be added on its own or as an upgrade to an existing solar system, and it works whether you already have solar installed or are considering it. If you already own solar panels and have wondered about adding battery backup without a large upfront cost, this is the kind of option worth asking about, including whether it's offered by installers in your state.