US installs a record amount of battery storage in Q2

Batteries are having a huge year on the U.S. power grid. Between April and June, the country installed 20.2 gigawatt-hours of new battery storage. It's the biggest quarter for battery storage the U.S. has ever recorded, industry group SEIA says. Total installs for 2026 are already up 23% over last year.

This isn't a one-off. The U.S. also set a storage record in the first quarter this year, and the pace has kept climbing since. Arizona, Texas, and California are leading the buildout. Power-hungry AI data centers and strained grids are pushing utilities to add backup capacity fast. Batteries let the grid store cheap solar power during the day and use it later, when demand and prices spike. Politically, this growth is happening despite headwinds. The Trump administration has pushed policies that make some clean-energy projects harder to permit and finance.

Keep reading — what to watch

Will this pace of installation keep climbing, or was Q2 a peak? The numbers so far point up. Installed battery storage has nearly doubled over the first 18 months of the current administration. That's according to a trade publication that tracks the industry. Most of that growth is chasing demand, not getting ahead of it. AI data centers keep adding power draw, faster than new power plants can get built. Whether utilities can keep pace with battery installs alone is one open question. Or whether the grid needs new generation too — that's the bigger one this record quarter doesn't answer.