Tesla Powerwalls did most of the heavy lifting as California’s home batteries set a new grid record last week. On October 6, more than 85,000 Powerwall owners sent over 600 MW to the grid, the bulk of a combined 745 MW dispatch that Sunrun announced today.

That’s 28% more than the 580 MW record the two companies set less than a month ago. And it’s bigger than most gas peaker plants in the state.

Tesla has turned on Powershare Home Backup for the Model 3 and Model Y, which means its two volume cars can now send power back into a house during an outage. Until today, the Cybertruck was the only Tesla that could do it.

There are limits. You need a Powerwall 3, and Tesla only guarantees the feature on cars ordered since October 1. For years, Ford and GM have been selling EVs that can back up a home.

Between increasingly extreme weather, rising electricity demands, and the rapid expansion of data centers, energy independence is starting to look less like a talking point for doomsday preppers and more like sound planning. That shift in thinking is driving more homeowners than ever towards solar-plus-battery energy solutions like the industry-leading Tesla Powerwall – but Powerwall isn’t the only game in town, anymore.

UPDATE 05OCT26: added the EcoFlow DELTA Pro.