CanaryMedia: “Chart: Batteries are set to surge onto the US grid.” Research firm BloombergNEF projects that over next 5 yrs the U.S. will build almost 6 gigawatts [GW] of utility-scale batteries. “Should the forecast bear out, the U.S. will have roughly three times more battery capacity in 2030 than it does now,” having climbed rapidly from only 1.5 GW in 2020 to a whopping 27.3 GW by the end of 2024. The 2 leading states California + Texas—mainly because of solar—have built the vast majority of the country’s utility-scale storage.
The resulting bonanzas: “By spring of 2024, California’s battery fleet had grown large enough to begin displacing some natural-gas use in the evening. Meanwhile, batteries have helped Texas stave off summertime grid emergencies for two years running.” Battery developers are proposing more + larger projects, but the sector is seeing more NIMBYism + political opposition. As an example, plans to build New York’s biggest battery on Staten Island fell through following fervent protest from the local community. “Fears of battery fires have spread around the country following the massive blaze at California’s Moss Landing facility in January, even though that disaster stemmed from the project’s outdated design.”
There are at least 3 winds filling the sails of storage. First, “Trump’s One Big ‘Billionaire’ Bill Act left incentives for battery storage relatively untouched, even as it yanked away tax credits for solar and wind projects.” Second, “solar is growing steadily around the country, which will eventually create a need for storage in other states just as it has in California and Texas.” Third, “demand for electricity is surging nationwide—and batteries are among the cheapest and quickest ways to get more capacity onto the grid.” I may be a natural-borne skeptic from Missouri, but at heart I am a rational optimist. From where I sit, things are looking good.
