Overview
- The U.S. added a record 20.2 GWh of battery storage in Q2 2026, bringing first-half installations to 30.8 GWh, the trade group SEIA and Benchmark reported Tuesday.
- Nearly all growth came from utility-scale projects, which supplied about 18 GWh in the quarter and included seven gigawatt-hour-scale systems with Arizona alone adding a record 6.2 GWh.
- Federal regulators have signaled new scrutiny of grid connections, with FERC asking regional operators to explain how large loads and fast buildouts will be tied in without raising costs or harming reliability.
- Residential battery installs fell sharply to 657 MWh in Q2, a 27% drop year over year that the report links in part to the removal of the federal 25D residential clean-energy tax credit.
- Domestic manufacturing capacity rose as Tesla started a Texas Megafactory with 50 GWh annual Megapack output, and Benchmark raised its 2030 U.S. storage forecast to 683 GWh while warning that financing, permitting, interconnection and market revenues will determine how much of the pipeline is built.