US Battery Installs to Hit Record in 2026, Industry Report Says
(Bloomberg) -- The US added a record amount of energy storage in the second quarter and is on pace to reach an all-time high this year, according to an industry trade report.
The country installed 20.2 gigawatt-hours of capacity during the three months ended in June and is on track to add 71 gigawatt-hours in 2026, according to a market outlook released by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. One gigawatt can power about 750,000 US homes.
California and Texas lead the country in total utility-scale battery capacity with 62 gigawatt-hours and 33.1 gigawatt-hours installed, respectively, at the end of the first half of this year, the report said. Both states tapped batteries to help provide power during heat waves and protect customers from price spikes, SEIA said in a statement on the report.
More than 74% of the energy storage capacity installed in the second quarter was built in states won by President Donald Trump in 2024, driven largely by growth in Arizona, Texas and Utah, SEIA said. Arizona led the country with 6.2 gigawatt-hours of new storage installations, the strongest quarter for any one state on record.
Battery energy storage has gone from a relatively small part of the US power system as recently as 2020 to one of its fastest-growing sources of capacity. Utility-scale storage has nearly doubled to 165 gigawatt-hours from 88 gigawatt-hours during the first 18 months of the Trump administration, SEIA said.
The boom is tied in part to the rapid buildout of solar power and growing demand for electricity from artificial intelligence. An increasing number of data centers are using batteries to help manage rapid changes in their power demand and provide short-duration backup.
The domestic industry does face headwinds from tariffs and new tax-incentive rules placing limits on the amount of equipment that can be sourced from China. Still, the US is ramping up its battery manufacturing capacity, with new facilities opening in states including Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, the report said.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
