An integrated, self-sufficient energy system that provides 100% of your power needs.

Solar + Storage. We design and optimize big onsite systems so that your solar panels provide power — either directly or from batteries — over 95% of the time.
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Generator. While an invaluable energy source, solar alone isn't enough. About 30 days a year, your off-grid system will use the generator to provide sufficient power.  
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Smart Home. Starfish provides in-home upgrades to optimize your home's energy performance. If desired, we can also electrify your home's heating system and install new fast-charging electric vehicle infrastructure.

Early Starfish customers are on the leading edge of fundamentally changing the electric utility industry. Disrupting monopolies, especially those that haven't changed in 100 years, isn't easy — or cheap.

So, the short answer: yes, Starfish systems have a premium price. Installations for customers in 2022 and 2023 will usually cost at least $100,000. (Though if you already have solar, it could be less than that.)

Our systems are designed to provide completely uninterruptable power — an order of magnitude more reliable than the grid. This means lots of solar, massive battery storage, a large propane tank and generator, and a next-generation control system to optimize operations. On top of this, for many homes, we'll install smart home features for further optimization.  

The cost premium here is similar to any new technology and system integration. Tesla's first car, the Roadster, wasn't cheap.

The good news: as more homes go off-grid, we'll keep driving down costs. We'll achieve unprecedented system efficiency. We'll reach economies of scale. Within five years, we believe off-grid will be at cost parity — enabling anyone to go off-grid.

It's completely different!

When regular solar companies install panels, even when paired with battery storage, those systems are interconnected with the grid. You use the grid at night and often send solar power back to the grid during the day.

The vast majority of the time, the battery is used to optimize when your home is using the grid — not for grid independence. A lot of companies refer to this as "grid services" or "virtual power plants." The basic goal: by responding to signals from the grid, the battery storage is used to reduce grid strain and cut electric costs.

When used as a backup power source, the battery usually provides anything from several to maybe 24 hours of power — and often only for your essential loads, not everything in the house. There are a number of limiting factors: your battery might have recently discharged, and have no charge remaining, to respond to grid signals and price spikes (a very likely occurrence); your solar system might not be sized to get through less-sunny wintertime days (a very likely occurrence); your battery system simply isn't big enough to provide sufficient power (almost certainly the case); you don't have a redundant power source (i.e., an integrated generator).

With Starfish Electric, it's a totally different ballgame.

‍We set up your home and its new integrated energy system so that you never use the grid again. No grid interconnection; no utility bills; no outages; no nonsense.

With Starfish, you're completely self-reliant. With everyone else, you're fundamentally reliant on the utility. There's no way around it: as long as you're beholden to your utility for even some of your power ... you're beholden to your utility.

We can almost certainly utilize the solar you have and integrate it into your new off-grid power system.

During the design process, we'll gather all of the data and information available about your existing system. Using that as a base, we'll then figure out what you need to get off the grid.

In some instances, we might only need to add battery storage, smart home improvements, and a propane generator; in others, we might add more solar to your existing installation.

If you already have battery storage, we'll try to work with your existing system. Most of the time, we'll need to add additional battery storage to create your off-grid system. (In some instances, your existing storage might have technical constraints to create an integrated off-grid system, in which case we'd replace what you have.)

Here's the truth: you're only 100% renewable due to offsets. To be clear, that's a big step in the right direction! But the electrons flowing from the grid don't know what kind of credits you've purchased.

If you have solar on your roof, you might be "net zero." But even with battery storage, you're still using the grid at night and probably during most wintertime days. You achieve net zero only by exporting excess electricity, when it's convenient, to offset your grid use.

With Starfish, things are totally different. Every single kilowatt-hour comes from your home's energy system. The vast majority of this power — likely 90-95% — will come from your solar and solar-powered battery storage. Then, when you need it, the remaining power will come from the integrated propane gas generator.

At Starfish, we leave the world of virtual carbon accounting to others. When it comes to the physical world, a Starfish off-grid system delivers a dramatically reduced carbon footprint.