Chart: The US battery market is on monitor for its finest 12 months but

With this new information in hand, the prediction appears much more more likely to be realized. The nation put in greater than double the quantity of utility-scale storage in Q1 2024 than it did over the identical interval a 12 months prior. And general battery storage installations — that means not simply utility-scale tasks, however dwelling and business installations as properly — have been 84 p.c greater than in Q1 2023. 

Grid batteries accounted for many of the new installations in Q1. And nearly all of this 993 MW of latest utility-scale storage capability was in-built three states: Texas, arguably the most popular grid battery market within the nation; California, the state with probably the most storage capability; and Nevada, a state with ample photo voltaic and a few momentum in battery deployments. In the residential and business markets, California led the best way as properly. 

This wave of battery storage installations comes on the heels of exponential progress in U.S. photo voltaic capability. A decade in the past, the U.S. had related round 20 GW of photo voltaic to the grid in complete; now the nation installs greater than that every 12 months. This progress can, at occasions, result in a humiliation of riches: Solar-saturated states like California usually produce extra clear electrical energy than they’ll instantly use. Without batteries to take in this surplus, a lot of carbon-free vitality goes to waste.

The demand created by this dynamic — together with the supply of extra beneficiant incentives for utility-scale storage builders and residential batteries alike — has helped drive the nation’s present battery increase. 

Already, the advantages are clear. In Texas, batteries helped stave off blackouts final summer season. In Utah, they’re serving to a utility cope with a sudden surge in electrical energy demand. In California, storage is displacing fossil fuel. 

And as photo voltaic continues to take off throughout the nation, extra batteries are more likely to observe, spreading the advantages even additional.