Overview
- Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association reported 3.3 GW / 8.4 GWh of battery energy storage installed in Q1 2026, a new quarterly record that tops the prior Q1 by about 54%.
- Utility-scale projects accounted for more than 2.3 GW / 6.8 GWh of Q1 additions as developers carried over work after safe-harboring pipelines in late 2025 to secure tax credits.
- Residential installs hit a record 1.3 GWh in Q1 2026 because many homeowners completed systems late in 2025 to claim Section 25D, though analysts expect residential volumes to contract in 2026 due to tax-equity and permitting pressures.
- FEOC restrictions now in force and limited FEOC-compliant inventory create a two-to-four year bottleneck that will push developers to secure long-term domestic supply deals or face consolidation and reliance on low-cost foreign manufacturers.
- Wood Mackenzie forecasts cumulative U.S. storage will reach about 200 GW / 655 GWh by 2031, driven mainly by utility-scale growth and by co-location with large industrial and data-center loads as domestic cell manufacturing scales up.