After the 2025 Ice Storm, Michigan Learned a Hard Lesson – Power Isn’t Guaranteed
In late March 2025, Michigan experienced a devastating and historic ice storm, coating trees, power lines and roads. When power lines snapped and poles came down, the lights went out for tens of thousands of homes, farms, and businesses. For many, power wasn’t restored for days. Some waited weeks.
For the people living through it, it wasn’t just an outage. It was freezers full of food, barns running on backup plans, and cold mornings that didn’t wait for the power to return.
If there was one takeaway across our communities, it was this: We are all more dependent on electricity than we sometimes like to admit, and we feel it most when it disappears.
At Peninsula Solar, we think about power a little differently. We think about the farmers who don’t get the option to wait out an outage. The well pump that still needs to run. The small shops trying to keep their
doors open. The parents trying to keep a house running.
That’s why we talk so much about this:
Own your Energy.
Because owning your energy means you’re not sitting in the dark waiting for status updates from the power company. You’re not guessing how long the generator fuel will last. You’re not watching your plans, or paycheck, take a hit when the grid goes down.
It means your power is in your hands, not just someone else’s. And while reliability is a huge part of the reason people look to go solar now, there’s another truth homeowners and business owners are getting tired of:
Paying more for power that isn’t guaranteed gets old.
There comes a point when you start questioning the trade-off. When the bill keeps climbing, but the reliability doesn’t. When you realize you’re paying more every year for a system you can’t control or
always count on. Solar offers a different kind of solution.
Own your power, Outlast outages. Quit rising bills. No guessing. No waiting. Just a system that works.
Peninsula Solar works with families, farmers, and business owners because those are the people that feel outages the hardest. When your home needs to run, your animals need to be cared for, or your
customers rely on you being open, “inconvenient” becomes something much bigger.
The 2025 ice storm didn’t start the conversation about energy independence here in Michigan, but it did make it more real for a lot of people. Because once you’ve lived through days without power, it stops being a hypothetical. It becomes a plan you actually want to have.
That’s what Own Your Energy means to us. Fewer what-ifs and more certainty. A system that doesn’t disappear when the weather gets heavy. A system that works for you instead of something you’re
waiting on.
That’s how we build at Peninsula Solar. For real people, real storms, real needs, and real confidence when the power goes out everywhere but home.
Schedule your free custom solar design today!
Marquette (906) 235-0340 | Greater Traverse City Area: (231) 590-7305
sales@peninsula-solar.com
FAQ
Does solar still work during a Michigan winter?
Yes. Solar panels generate electricity from daylight, not heat. Shorter winter days mean slightly less production, but snow reflectivity can actually boost output. Our systems are sized to account for seasonal
production so you are covered year-round.
Is solar worth it if I plan to stay on grid?
Absolutely. Most of our customers stay grid-connected. Solar simply lets you buy less from it. Think of it as owning part of your energy instead of renting all of it.
What if snow covers my panels?
Snow will temporarily block production, but our panels are dark, angled, and smooth, so snow usually slides off on its own. And because winter production is already factored into system design, a
few snowy days won’t derail your systems performance.
