Three thousand Californian apartments will be linked up to solar panels and batteries — meaning they might never experience a power outage again, no matter what California’s utility companies do. The project, planned by German energy storage company Sonnen, will be spread across seven apartment complexes — the largest of its kind.
The connected set of solar panels and batteries form what’s called a “virtual power plant.” Besides making sure the whole community can run on backup solar power during blackouts, these VPPs also reduce strain on the grid — because VPPs store their energy on-site. What’s more, they can be tapped to provide energy during demand peaks.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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