BLUETTI’s Solar+: Your one-stop solution for solar – with a free battery!
If you’re looking to save money by transitioning to solar energy and ensure your home is prepared for grid outages and extreme weather, BLUETTI has you covered. BLUETTI, one of the most trusted names in energy storage solutions, has announced the exciting launch of the BLUETTI Solar+ Program for Texas homeowners. The program encompasses a wide range of flexible solar and battery home power solutions designed to not only slash your energy bills but also propel your home into an era of clean and resilient energy. What’s more, with BLUETTI’s Solar+ Program, you get a free battery with your solar setup – an incredible savings to start your solar journey.
BLUETTI Solar+, which just launched on December 22, aims to revolutionize the adoption of solar energy in Texas by making it easy to do so: The program provides a seamless, cost-effective, and hassle-free way to transition to clean, sustainable power. Regardless of what you’re looking for – from achieving energy independence and off-grid solutions to reducing your energy bills – the BLUETTI Solar+ Program has a solution that can fit your needs.
One-stop solution: Pay for solar, get a free battery
One of the best aspects of the Solar+ Program is when you pay for your solar setup, you get a complimentary BLUETTI battery – which makes the transition to solar that much sweeter. Depending on which battery storage setup you choose, the idea works like this: The BLUETTI modular system connects to solar panels installed on your roof, stores and supplies that power, ensuring uninterrupted energy during outages, or powering your home at night or when you need it. The program is flexible and can be customized to meet your power needs, from cutting down on energy bills to supplying enough juice to run your indoor appliances during a blackout. That way your food stays fresh and your family can enjoy the comforts of home without stressful disruption.
Another exciting part of BLUETTI Solar+ is that homes that get abundant sunlight (and there’s a lot of that in Texas) can convert that surplus solar energy into a lucrative revenue stream. Homeowners can sell this surplus power to BLUETTI partners, making passive income from your free sunlight. It’s a win-win.
A stress-free and seamless transition to solar
One of the major sticking points for homeowners who want to convert to solar power is handling the bureaucratic paperwork, the complexities of deciding which system to use, and any number of cumbersome decisions and tasks that come with it. That is where BLUETTI Solar+ steps in, offering homeowners an easy way to go solar without the hassle.
How it works is that when homeowners opt for the BLUETTI Solar+ Program, they are guaranteed a hands-on, stress-free experience. For the initial consultation, BLUETTI’s energy consultants analyze your energy requirements, preferences, and site specifics, offering customized configurations for solar panels and battery storage systems. BLUETTI’s custom software provides a comprehensive mockup of what your home will look like with solar installation, so there are no surprises. Plus you’ll get a full overview of all the financial returns and backup power available from your solar battery system. Flexible financing options are also available.
A BLUETTI Solar+ project manager will take care of all the details, from overseeing the design to handling permits to all of the paperwork completion, buildout, and troubleshooting. Installation usually takes about a day, and BLUETTI manages the inspector quality assurance to make sure everything is on track.
Meanwhile, you can sit back and enjoy peace of mind in knowing your home is prepared, more resilient, and ready for anything. Plus by going solar with BLUETTI Solar+, you’re not just saving money, you’re also actively contributing to a sustainable future and being part of the solution – and that is something Electrek readers care a lot about. Plus you get a free battery with your solar setup!
If you’re a homeowner in Texas, check out more details about BLUETTI Solar+ here.
About BLUETTI
Backed by more than 10 years of experience and a fierce commitment to the environment, BLUETTI has curated an extensive and reliable product portfolio tailored for adventures, emergency backup power, and off-grid living, making a tangible and positive impact on minimizing its carbon footprint for the planet. That’s why BLUETTI is an industry leader available in more than 100 countries and trusted by millions of customers around the world.
For more information, please visit BLUETTI online.
Photos: BLUETTI
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (right) and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar enter a hall for their talks at Zinaida Morozova’s Mansion in Moscow on Aug. 21, 2025.
Alexander Zemlianichenko | Afp | Getty Images
India and Russia agreed Thursday to expand bilateral trade ties, signaling that U.S. tariff pressure on New Delhi over Russian oil purchases is unlikely to derail their partnership.
India currently faces additional tariffs of up to 50% on goods shipped to the U.S., after the Trump administration escalated tariff threats in response to its substantial imports of Russian energy.
The India-Russia relations had been among the “steadiest of the major relationships in the world after the Second World War,” Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at a joint press conference in Moscow.
Both countries vowed to boost bilateral trade, including increasing India’s exports of pharmaceuticals, agriculture and textiles to Russia to help reduce the current imbalance, Jaishankar said.
Bilateral trade between New Delhi and Moscow reached a record $68.7 billion for the year ended March 2025, with India’s increased oil imports contributing to a $59 billion deficit.
Other plans include sending Indian workers with skills in IT, construction and engineering to help Russia address its labor shortages, Jaishankar added.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and Russian oil shipments to the Indian market are “making wide strides.” Both sides remain committed to implementing joint energy production projects in the Russian Far East and the Russian Arctic shelf, among other sites, he said.
“This strategic partnership … contributes to regional security and stability, which is undeniably important considering the challenging international circumstances that we are operating under,” Lavrov added.
Western governments have imposed sanctions on Moscow, arguing India’s increased imports helped bankroll Moscow’s war in Ukraine. New Delhi has pushed back, saying the U.S. administration requested the purchases to keep the markets calm, while pointing to the U.S. and European Union’s continued trade with Russia.
Russian embassy officials in New Delhi reportedly said Wednesday that oil shipments to India will continue despite U.S. pressure, adding that Moscow hoped a trilateral meeting with India and China would take place soon.
“Despite the political situation, we can predict that the same level of oil import [by India],” Roman Babushkin, the charge d’affaires at the Russian embassy in India, told a press briefing.
“Russia has been a close strategic partner of India since the 1970s and the Trump administration’s tariff threats are not going to change that,” said Daniel Balazs, a research fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“On the contrary, it might even act as a catalyst,” Balazs added, prompting New Delhi to agree to a trilateral meeting that Moscow sought to broker with China.
India was the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, importing 1.6 million barrels per day in the first half of this year, up from 50,000 bpd in 2020, though still trailing China’s 2 million bpd imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Washington has not placed secondary tariffs on China for its Russian oil purchases. When asked about China’s role in Russian oil purchases, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that Beijing’s imports were considered to be less egregious because it had already been a major buyer even before Russia invaded Ukraine.
By contrast, Washington has escalated criticism of India in recent days, accusing the nation of profiteering from cheap Russian crude and threatening higher tariffs on Indian goods.
Ceasefire on the line
Trump’s true agenda appears to have little to do with Washington’s stated goal of curbing Moscow’s oil revenues, but extracting leverage from these trading partners, according to several geopolitical experts. These include securing a trade deal with New Delhi while pushing Putin for a ceasefire pact in Ukraine.
Last week, Trump rolled out a red carpet to greet Putin on his first visit to the U.S. in about a decade, sharing a ride with him in the presidential limousine to the venue. The meeting was held in Alaska, which was once a part of Russia.
The meeting did not appear to have produced meaningful steps toward a ceasefire in Ukraine and the Russian government has reiterated its opposition to any short-term ceasefire deal with Ukraine.
Speaking at the joint news briefing Thursday, Lavrov said he had briefed Indian officials on those talks.
“India’s approach continues to emphasize dialogue and diplomacy as essential to resolving differences,” Jaishankar said.
The storm hit. The power’s out. With all the damage around you, it looks like you might be without power for a few days (at least). But you planned for this. You have a home backup battery. What happens now?
If you’re considering a home backup battery, or you already have one and haven’t needed it yet, you might be wondering what you’re supposed to do when the inevitable happens. The good news is: you probably won’t have to do much at all.
Whether you’ve got an industry standard like the Tesla Powerwall, one of the new GM Energy Storage Bundles, or any of the other excellent home battery systems on the market, from your point of view they’ll function in pretty much the same way.
Step 1: do nothing
Modern home batteries are paired with an automatic transfer switch. That’s a switch, usually installed near your home’s electrical panel, that allows you to go from grid power, to battery, and back. And, because it’s automatic, you don’t have to do anything at all.
The instant the grid goes down, the automatic transfer switch recognizes the loss of power and automagically disconnects your house from the grid, seamlessly connecting it to your backup battery instead. Your lights stay on, the refrigerator keeps humming, and whatever else you’ve chosen to back up just keeps on keeping on. In some cases, the transition to battery power happens so smoothly that you might not even realize the neighborhood’s lost power, not noticing the neighbors’ dark windows until you step outside.
When the power comes back, that side of the switch gets energized, and it does its thing again, only in reverse – switching you back from battery to grid power and intelligently re-charging the battery in anticipation for the next blackout.
How long will my battery last?
Unfortunately, this is one of those questions that doesn’t have an easy answer. In the simplest terms, if you have a small battery and try to keep the AC running, you might run out of juice in a few hours. On the other hand, if you have great big battery and save its electrons for just the barest essentials (a few lights, a laptop, and a phone or radio, for example) you might never run out of power.
To put some numbers to that, a 31 cu. ft. Samsung RF32CG5400SRAA stainless steel refrigerator is rated at 785 kWh/year. That works out to about 2.15 kWh/day. Factor in 20-40% higher energy needs for warmer temperatures, a few daily door openings, defrost cycles, inverter losses, etc. and you’re looking at 18-22 kWh of usable battery capacity to keep that thing running for a full week on battery power. Now do that same math for every appliance you deem a “must have,” then do the “nice to haves,” and on down the line.
That doesn’t even address the other form of “last,” and whether you’re looking for a ten- or twenty- year battery solution.
What you need to do, in other words, is talk to the experts. Let them know what appliances you need to keep running, how long you want to prepare for, and let them do the math to help determine which battery solution is right for you.
I’ve included a video that covers the process of picking a solar battery from EnergySage (a trusted affiliate partner), below, and invite you to share some of your own backup battery-picking experiences in the comments.
How to pick a solar battery
Original content from Electrek.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Just days after Chevrolet beat the mighty Ford Mustang GTD’s Nürburgring track record with their Corvette ZR1 and ZR1X, Ford went back to the ‘Ring to reclaim some glory. They didn’t bring a Mustang along, though – they showed up with an electric van, and record-setting hot shoe Romain Dumas behind the wheel.
* it’s not your typical van. It’s a SuperVan.
Ford took back a fair bit of Chevy’s headline-grabbing glory this week when LeMans-winning driver Romain Dumas lapped the 12.9 mile Green Hell in just 6 minutes and 48.393 seconds – a blazing performance that makes the 2000 hp Ford SuperVan 4.2 the ninth fastest car to ever blast around the storied German racetrack.
Dumas is no stranger to the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife. He was first overall at the 2007 24 hour race there. He also holds the outright Nürburgring track record for EVs, which he set back in 2019 behind the wheel of the Volkswagen ID.R, completing the circuit in 6 minutes and 05.336 driving the Volkswagen ID.R.
The new ‘Ring-record comes just a few weeks after Ford beat out every other supercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK with its all-electric SuperTruck, crushing the “competition” with their 1,400 hp prototype EV silhouette racer.
No word yet on what track record Ford plans to snatch with an EV next.
Electrek’s Take
If there were still Ford guys and Chevy guys, I like to think I’d be a Mopar guy – but even from the sidelines, I can tell that Chevy’s been having a rough couple of weeks, performance-wise. Not only did their top-shelf ZR1X get beaten by a Ford van (even if it is a SuperVan), but their clean sheet, future-thinking, pie-in-the-sky concept Corvette got beat to the hypercar headlines by a Chinese rival with 1,000 extra hp.
Take my advice, GM: it’s time to drag Warren Mosler back home from the Virgin Islands, figure out where Rod Trenne’s hiding, and get them to build you a proper, 900 kg electric ‘Vette. Y’all let me know if you need help setting that up.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Ford.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment3 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike