From ESS News
The US energy storage industry has entered a “new phase of sustained, high-volume deployment,” according to the inaugural Energy Storage Market Outlook Q1 2026 released by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
The report confirms that 2025 was the largest single year for battery additions on record, with the US installing 57.6 GWh of new capacity, a 30% increase over 2024. The utility-scale segment remained the primary engine of growth, accounting for nearly 50 GWh of the total, while residential storage saw a 51% year-over-year surge as homeowners raced to capitalize on tax credits before year-end shifts.
Notably, the report underscores a “red state” boom in clean energy infrastructure.
Two-thirds of all utility-scale storage installed in 2025 was built in states won by President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Texas is now on a trajectory to overtake California in 2026 as the nation’s largest energy storage market, driven by the state’s urgent need for grid reliability amid rising demand from AI and data centers.
“Energy storage is no longer an add-on to solar; it is a central technology for America’s energy future,” said Darren Van’t Hof, interim president and CEO of SEIA.
However, the outlook for 2026 is tempered by the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and new “Foreign Entity of Concern” (FEOC) requirements. While SEIA projects 2026 installations to climb to 70 GWh, the industry faces a complex period of supply chain realignment.
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