Base Power closes $1 billion at a $13 billion valuation to scale U.S.-made home batteries

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• Base Power Raises $1B for U.S.-Made Home Batteries: The Texas-based startup closed a Series D at a $13 billion valuation, launching the 39.2 kWh Base Core battery manufactured in Austin. Its operational fleet has surpassed 500 MWh. Canary Media. Read More: Canary Media.
• Rockhound Solar Hits Nearly 1 GW in West Texas: Origis Energy activated three new phases at its Ector County mega-project, now approaching 1 GW of operating capacity with a target of exceeding 2 GW by 2029. PV Magazine USA. Read More: PV Magazine USA.
• Virginia Regulators Order Data Center Cost Shift: The State Corporation Commission directed Dominion Energy to develop a tariff assigning more transmission costs to data centers and other large-load users, shielding residential ratepayers. Virginia Mercury. Read More: Virginia Mercury.
• We Energies Breaks Ground on 75-MW Wisconsin Battery: Construction started in July on the Darien Battery Storage project in Walworth County, one of three energy projects the utility launched in Wisconsin. Solar Power World. Read More: Solar Power World.
• New Jersey Shapes Battery-Eligible VPP Program: Utility managers designing the state's virtual power plant program emphasized utility-owned storage and customer-centric enrollment to reduce participation attrition and ease grid congestion. Utility Dive. Read More: Utility Dive.

Solar & Storage

The Rockhound Solar project in Ector County, Texas, is now one of the largest operating solar facilities in the country. Origis Energy activated three additional phases, pushing the site to nearly 1 GW — and the company says it intends to exceed 2 GW there by 2029. The facility supplies power to corporate offtakers, a model that continues to drive utility-scale solar construction in Texas even as Governor Abbott's freeze on new data center grid connections, reported last week, adds uncertainty to future large-load demand in the state. For developers, the Rockhound expansion confirms West Texas as the nation's fastest-growing solar corridor — but the economics increasingly depend on locking in creditworthy offtakers before interconnection bottlenecks tighten further. Read More: reported last week.

Base Power's $1 billion raise lands at a moment when residential battery storage is crossing from niche product to grid-scale resource. The company's new Base Core unit — available in 39.2 kWh and 78.4 kWh configurations — is manufactured at its Austin facility, a domestic production bet that could benefit from existing federal manufacturing incentives. Base Power's operational fleet already exceeds 500 MWh, and the company plans to expand beyond Texas and Illinois, its two current markets. At a $13 billion valuation, Base Power is now valued above many publicly traded independent power producers, a reflection of how investors are pricing distributed storage as infrastructure rather than consumer electronics. PV Magazine USA. Read More: PV Magazine USA.

Grid-scale storage is moving ahead too. We Energies broke ground on the 75-MW Darien Battery Storage project in Walworth County, Wisconsin, part of a three-project push the utility says will support grid capacity during peak demand. The project started construction in July. Meanwhile, New Jersey is designing a virtual power plant program that would aggregate battery storage systems — both utility-owned and customer-sited — to relieve grid congestion. Utility managers working on the program's design are focused on reducing participation attrition, a persistent problem in demand-response programs that rely on voluntary customer enrollment. If the New Jersey model works, it could offer a template for other congested Eastern grids looking to defer costly transmission upgrades with aggregated distributed storage. Read More: relieve grid congestion.

Solar on affordable housing is gaining traction in New York, where rooftop installations on multifamily buildings are cutting energy costs for low-income residents. Federal tax credits and state-level incentives are making these projects pencil for affordable housing providers who operate on razor-thin margins. The approach treats solar less as a revenue generator and more as an operating cost reduction — a framing that may prove more durable than subsidy-dependent community solar models if federal incentive structures shift under the current administration. PV Magazine USA. Read More: PV Magazine USA.

Policy & Markets

Virginia's State Corporation Commission took a consequential step on transmission cost allocation, ordering Dominion Energy to develop a tariff that shifts more infrastructure costs onto data centers and other large-load customers. The order directly addresses growing frustration among regulators and residential ratepayers who have watched data center demand drive billions in grid investment while those costs get socialized across all customer classes. For the data center industry — already rattled by Abbott's grid connection freeze in Texas — the Virginia decision signals a broader regulatory reckoning. Developers planning load-intensive facilities in Dominion's territory now face higher and less predictable interconnection economics. Virginia Mercury. Read More: Virginia Mercury.

Permitting remains the other major chokepoint. A Utility Dive analysis argues that the most damaging bottleneck for battery storage isn't federal — it's municipal. Extended city-level review cycles are adding months to project timelines and increasing costs, a problem that compounds as storage projects proliferate from utility-scale sites into commercial and residential settings. The permitting delays are particularly acute for behind-the-meter battery installations where local fire codes, zoning rules, and building departments often lack standardized review processes. For the storage industry, which added record capacity nationally in 2025, the municipal permitting problem threatens to cap deployment well below what the interconnection queue and investor appetite could support. Read More: municipal permitting problem.

Internationally, China's 15th Five-Year Plan placed battery storage at the center of its renewable strategy, targeting 3.5 TW of total renewable capacity by 2030. The country ended 2025 with 136 GW and 351 GWh of installed energy storage and has set a near-term requirement of 180 GW by 2027. Those figures dwarf anything contemplated in the United States and will likely intensify pressure on U.S. manufacturers — including companies like Base Power — to demonstrate that domestic production can compete on cost. PV Magazine. Read More: PV Magazine.

LOOKING AHEAD

• Dominion Tariff Design Timeline: Watch for Dominion Energy's proposed tariff structure in response to the Virginia SCC order — the methodology for allocating transmission costs to data centers will set a precedent other state commissions are likely to study.
• Rockhound Offtaker Announcements: With Origis Energy's West Texas project nearing 1 GW and targeting 2 GW by 2029, new corporate power purchase agreements could surface in coming weeks that reveal which buyers are willing to commit to ERCOT solar at current prices.
• New Jersey VPP Program Details: Regulators are still shaping eligibility rules and compensation structures for the state's battery-eligible virtual power plant program — final design choices will determine whether the program attracts meaningful residential storage enrollment or stalls.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Battery storage — from 39 kWh home units to 75-MW grid assets — dominated today's news cycle, but the capital flooding into the sector will only convert to deployed megawatts if municipal permitting, utility tariff design, and program enrollment keep pace with the money.