Has battery storage become critical infrastructure? According to The American Clean Power Association, battery storage capacity surpassed 30 GW nationwide with a 65% year-over-year increase. Q1 2025 set a new first-quarter record at 1,602 MW of installations.
Clean energy had its second-strongest Q1 ever: 7.4 GW of new capacity worth $10 billion in domestic investment. Battery storage led the charge with record installations.
American clean power capacity now exceeds 320 GW nationwide, powering nearly 80 million homes. The grid's growing need for flexible, dispatchable power drives a large growing share for battery storage.
Storage pipeline capacity grew 57% year-over-year to reach nearly 50 GW, far outpacing the 24% growth in wind. Storage's outsized growth signals that developers recognize battery technology as essential infrastructure, not optional.
When project teams commit capital at this scale, they're making a bet. They believe grid-scale battery demand will sustain. The pipeline suggests they're right.
The reason for the acceleration in battery storage deployment is because it solves a fundamental problem. As clean power capacity continues to grow, grids require flexible resources. These resources manage intermittency and maintain reliability.
Grid stability requires precise supply-demand balance at every moment. When electricity generation fails to match consumption, blackouts result. Generation sources must connect when demand rises and disconnect when it falls.
Batteries excel at grid stability services. They switch between supplying power and absorbing it in fractions of a second. Zero fuel costs. Minimal maintenance. Speed, flexibility, and economics in one package.
It’s this combination that explains battery market dominance. In California, batteries provide 63% of regulation down and 80% of regulation up services. In Texas, batteries supply two-thirds of regulation and responsive reserve services. When grid operators need reliable, fast-responding power management, they choose batteries because they work.
Texas and California prove batteries deliver grid reliability at scale. Texas forecasts a reduced emergency alert risk from 16% to 0.5% this August, in part because battery storage capacity has increased. At its peak, batteries delivered almost as much power to Texans as nuclear power did.
California quadrupled battery evening output from 1 GW to 5 GW between 2022 and 2024. During peak hours, batteries now serve 30% of state demand.
Batteries make grids reliable. That makes them valuable. There are now 394 gigawatts of battery-only projects in the interconnection queue, representing 25 times existing battery capacity on the grid. If it continues to grow at a blistering pace, battery storage will surpass hydro as the largest source of grid-scale electrical storage in the next 5 years!