The U.S. installed a record-high energy storage capacity in the second quarter of the year as grid operators and utilities turned to storage to boost grid reliability and meet rising power demand, a new industry report showed on Tuesday.
The industry installed 20.2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of new capacity in the second quarter of the year, making it the largest quarter for installations on record and bringing total installations in the first half of 2026 to 30.8 GWh, according to the U.S. Energy Storage Market Outlook Q3 2026 (ESMO) by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
The utility-scale market led the surge with 18 GWh installed, largely supported by seven gigawatt-scale projects. Arizona alone installed more than 6.2 GWh of utility-scale projects, the largest quarterly deployment for any state in history, the report found.
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The residential sector saw 657 MWh of energy storage added, while the commercial and industrial (C&I) sector installed 1.8 GWh, largely due to power demand from data centers, SEIA and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said.
Due to rising demand for energy storage to boost grid reliance, SEIA and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence raised their forecast for installations by 11.5% through 2030, expecting the market to exceed annual installations of 110 GWh and have a cumulative 683 GWh by the end of the decade.
“The upward revision comes as the industry continues to set deployment records, with more than 10% of all energy storage capacity currently installed in the U.S. coming online in Q2 alone,” SEIA said.
“Energy storage is no longer just a California and Texas story anymore,” said Shan Tomouk, BESS & Energy Lead at Benchmark Minerals. “We’re seeing strong pipeline growth in Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado and several other states.”
Battery energy storage supplied more electricity to the grid in the first eight months of 2026 than in all of 2025, the report showed.
Utility-scale battery storage capacity in the United States has jumped over the last three years, with an annual average growth rate of 70%, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last month.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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