Solar + batteries rising
Homeowners and contractors are trading grid risk for reliability—solar + battery installs are getting traction as a way to cut bills and play wholesale opportunities in deregulated markets like ERCOT (x.com). Vendors are already marketing full packaged installs (panels, batteries, inverters) to mainstream buyers, and the IEA says solar/wind/batteries now account for roughly 90% of new global electricity builds as capacity is set to triple by 2030 ( ).
Battery storage deployment surged worldwide in 2023, with 42 GW of new battery capacity added as the fastest‑growing power technology and deployment more than doubling year‑on‑year. (iea.org (iea.org)) U.S. battery capacity rose 66% in 2024, and operators reported planned utility‑scale battery additions of about 19.6 GW for 2025 in the EIA’s inventory data. (eia.gov (eia.gov)) Residential installers and retail partners are packaging solar+storage for mainstream buyers: SunPower expanded dealer sales and financing for Tesla’s Powerwall 3 in 2024, enabling no‑down financing options for homeowners. (pv‑magazine‑usa.com (pv-magazine-usa.com)) National retail rollouts have followed: Sunnova was named The Home Depot’s exclusive national solar and battery services provider for in‑store offerings across roughly 2,000 U.S. locations, putting turnkey solar+storage in big‑box channels. (solarpowerworldonline.com (solarpowerworldonline.com)) Manufacturers have launched higher‑end packaged battery products for whole‑home reliability: Generac introduced its modular PWRcell 2 series (configurable in 3 kWh increments with models up to multiple cabinets) and promoted integration with generators and smart controls late in 2024. (generac.com (generac.com) Electrek.co (electrek.co)) Market design changes in Texas are widening wholesale revenue paths for batteries: ERCOT implemented Real‑Time Co‑optimization Plus Batteries (RTC+B) on December 5, 2025, formally allowing batteries to be co‑optimized for energy and ancillary services in real time. (ercot.com (ercot.com) Resurety.com (resurety.com)) Analysts tracking ERCOT note that arbitrage and optimized bidding strategies now dominate battery revenue stacks, shifting developer focus from ancillary‑service playbooks toward day‑ahead/real‑time energy trading and aggregated virtual power plant models. (modoenergy.com (modoenergy.com) habitat.energy (habitat.energy)) Industry trackers projected the U.S. cumulative battery fleet approaching nearly 30 GW by end‑2024 after large year‑over‑year growth, underlining why manufacturers, retailers and financiers are pushing bundled solar+storage products to mainstream homeowners. (statista.com (statista.com) energy-storage.news (energy-storage.news))
