Taking a Page from Tesla's Notebook, Sunrun Builds a "Virtual" Solar Power Plant in California

Two years ago, Elon Musk's Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) made a big splash on the world stage with his plan to link 50,000 solar-panel-equipped homes in South Australia to create a 250-megawatt "virtual power plant" that could both convert solar power into electricity, and also store it for use when it was needed. Two years later, Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN) -- a rival to Tesla in the field of solar energy, if not in electric cars -- is planning to make a (much smaller) splash of its own ... in California.

As Sunrun announced today, the self-proclaimed "nation's leading home solar, battery storage and energy services company" is teaming up with Southern California Edison (SCE), "the largest utility in Southern California and one of the largest in the country," to launch "one of the first residential energy storage virtual power plants in operation in the United States."

The "plant" can then be used to provide backup power to the solar grid as needed.

Source Fool.com