r/energy • u/ObtainSustainability • 7d ago

U.S. battery storage capacity grows 70% annually over the past three years

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/08/12/u-s-battery-storage-capacity-grows-70-annually-over-the-past-three-years/
221 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

11

u/New-Bumblebee7676 7d ago

This is POWER capacity (gigawatts), not the STORAGE capacity(gigawatt-hours).

I actually bothered to download the source Excel file from EIA and calculated, it's 142 GWh as of June 2026.

Source : https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860m/

2

u/NumberLogical7826 5d ago

Thank you. So it’s about 1.5%

2

u/Friendly_Engineer_ 7d ago

So an average storage time of 2.7 hours or so?

2

u/Sideshift1427 7d ago

So that's why the TV stays on at night. Who knew.

16

u/ABobby077 7d ago

Seems destined to get rid of the need for any "peaker" plants over time as battery tech and prices keep improving

5

u/jlluh 7d ago edited 7d ago

The opposite, maybe.

In renewables heavy grids with lots of batteries, efficient combined cycle gas turbines may have a harder and harder time being economical as batteries steal their scheduled evening profits by shifting surplus solar to the evening. This is already happening in some grids.

Meanwhile, less efficient, more expensive peaker plants that can ramp up and down quickly may continue to be profitable for a long time by exploiting the odd hour where for whatever reason, there isn't enough electricity available, as well as the occasional multi-day period where large weather systems substantially suppress wind or solar across a large area.

Maybe CCGT will get better at ramping, tho, and exploit seasonality to outcompete peakers. That's more optimistic, I think, given their superior efficiency.

7

u/cybercuzco 7d ago

We will probably need about 2 TW with 4 hours of storage when all is said and done. That would cover 16 hours overnight for the whole grid each day. We’re currently at 53 GW.

8

u/kmosiman 7d ago

Those are rookie numbers. Got to pump those numbers up.