From Background to Backbone: Energy Storage Will Help Define America’s Energy Future

While “storage” may not sound flashy, it’s the innovative technology that keeps America’s energy system fast, agile, and effective when it counts. 

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Electricity demand is climbing faster than at any point in the last 70 years. New factories, AI datacenters, and industrial growth are pushing the grid to its limits. Most of our power grid was built decades ago – and it wasn't built for this moment. Energy storage was.

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 In Texas, nearly 5 gigawatts of energy storage came online in a single year[NR1] . The payoff: a record-breaking summer with no blackout warnings and more than $750 million in savings for families and businesses. Energy storage has moved from “backup plan” to front-line defense - the difference between lights out and business as usual. It's not just Texas. In 2018, the U.S. only had 1 GW of storage on its grid. Today, we have 35 GW deployed - enough to power 26 million homes.

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 It’s also fueling an industrial comeback. More than $100 billion is already committed to US battery and energy storage equipment manufacturing, creating 350,000 jobs. By 2030, America could meet all its grid-scale battery demand with domestic supply and even export grid batteries to our allies abroad.

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 You can already see it in giga factories rising in Nevada and Tennessee, lithium sourced from Nevada and Arkansas, and new refineries in Texas and Tennessee — a fully American supply chain built at record pace. This is industrial renewal in real time, strengthening both our economy and our national security.

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 The US Energy Storage Coalition brings together 30+ leading companies building America’s energy storage projects and battery factories. Together, we are the developers, manufacturers, and innovators deploying the infrastructure that will help power every home, factory, and data center of the next generation. Our mission: break bottlenecks, accelerate deployment, and scale energy storage manufacturing to meet this new era of demand.

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But scaling won’t happen on its own. We need smart policy, faster permitting, and continued investment to put steel in the ground and leverage the resources beneath our feet. That means advancing federal and state policies, accelerating grid connections, and creating new jobs in cities and towns across America.

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Energy storage doesn’t compete with other energy sources — it's designed to strengthen them. Energy storage balances and maximizes the benefits of low-cost solar while supporting traditional power plants like gas and coal, helping them run longer and more efficiently. With energy storage, America’s immense homegrown energy resources are maximized to make a power grid that’s reliable, affordable, and built for the future. 

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Energy storage is no longer a background player. It’s powering America’s energy future. The opportunity is here, and the Coalition is ready to get to work.

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