In my humble opinion, Sonoma County is still one of the best places to live in the country. Everywhere you turn beautiful landscapes unfold and amazing restaurants, produce and wine can be found around every corner.

Though we have had our fair share of disasters in recent years, we are a hearty folk who will learn to cope with whatever Mother Nature or PG&E throws at us.

One way to deal with another power outage is to invest in new (or old) technology that allows you to power your home when PG&E flips off the switch.  Although generators are still one of the cheaper solutions for coping with energy loss, they can be noisy and impractical. Solar cells, power walls and microgrids  allow home and business owners to take control of their energy needs.

Here’s a little about each:

Solar panels

Solar panel systems, also called photovoltaic systems, capture and convert the energy of the sun into the AC electricity you use in your home.

Powerwalls and powerpacks

Powerwalls and powerpacks are new technologies devised by Tesla that hit the market in 2015. These stationary energy storage units use rechargeable lithium ion-batteries to store solar power for off-grid consumption or back-up power. The same technology that powers their cars is now available for your home or business.

Microgrids

Microgrids are a method of storing energy for a small network of electricity users (instead of an individual home) should a power outage occur. Sonoma Index-Tribune reporter Ann Ward Ernst, describes them as “an island of electricity self-reliance” which can be used as a back-up power source .

Although, I haven’t seen any listings with power walls or microgrids  listed yet, a number of homes are currently on the market with photovoltaic systems.

Click through our gallery above to explore some of the solar-powered homes currently on the market in Sonoma County.