The United States is second in electrical storage in the world after China. In 2023, the U.S. added an estimated 7.5 gigawatts of electrical storage capacity. A report from BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy said that is 62 percent more than in 2022. That amount of electricity could power 750,000 homes for one day. The total amount of electricity storage capacity in the U.S. is enough for 2 million homes for one day, BloombergNEF estimates. California has the most energy storage in the country. It has twice as much as any other state. Residential, commercial and utility-level battery capacity increased by 757 percent there over four years. The California Energy Commission said there is now enough electrical storage capacity to power 6.6 million homes for up to four hours.

Texas has the second-most battery storage after California. Last month, Schneider Electric announced it is working with energy company ENGIE North America on solar and battery systems in Texas. The aim is to get closer to the French multinationals 100 percent renewable energy goal in the U.S. and Canada. Hans Royal is Schneider Electrics senior director for renewable energy and carbon advisory. He said the deal with ENGIE, and the necessary $80 million investment, would not have been possible without the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. That was a major climate-related law passed by the U.S. Congress in 2022. Royal is advising other big companies he works with to get into the market for electricity storage. The industry needs that, the grid needs it, said Royal.

A worker checks battery storage at Orsted's Eleven Mile Solar Center on Feb. 29, 2024, in Coolidge, Ariz. Batteries allow renewables to replace fossil fuels while keeping a steady flow of power when sources like wind and solar are not producing. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

The future Back in Arizona, rsteds Eleven Mile Solar Center has 857,000 solar panels and more than 2,000 cubes that look like large shipping containers but contain batteries. rsted also has large solar and storage projects in Texas and Alabama, and in Europe. When the Arizona facility opens this summer, most power from the solar farm will go to Facebook owner Metas data center in the town of Mesa. Any extra solar power, in addition to the power stored in the batteries, will go to the local utilitys customers. The new batteries can ensure power to about 65,000 homes for a few hours of high demand. What I think is exciting is just how rapidly this market is moving, said Yayoi Sekine, head of energy storage at BloombergNEF.