Dive Brief:

• Residential solar company Sunrun has rolled out its BrightBox solar + storage service to the California market.

• The San Francisco based company is making the storage system available to customers for little or no money down through either a monthly or prepaid lease of up to 20 years. The California solar + storage rollout will use Tesla and LG Chem batteries.

• The BrightBox battery is designed to keep 20% of its charge at all times for backup power in the event of an outage.

Dive Insight:

Sunrun first rolled out its BrightBox storage system in Hawaii back in May. BrightBox combines Sunrun’s solar power generation with smart inverter technology and, in Hawaii, Tesla Powerwall batteries.

“Building on the successful launch of BrightBox in Hawaii, we are thrilled to offer Sunrun BrightBox to California homeowners who’ve been the leaders in adopting clean energy at scale,” Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun, said in a statement.

SunRun sees an opportunity to package energy storage with solar systems in California as the state moves toward a time-of-use rate structure. Storage will enable solar customers to better manage their energy consumption, and give them the capability to extend their self generation into the more expensive evening peak hours by using stored solar energy.

Sunrun also says that storage offers homeowners peace of mind during power outages by backing up the electrical circuits that are the most critical to homeowners.