U.S. battery storage hits 52 GW after three years of 70% annual growth

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

• U.S. Battery Storage Reaches 52 GW, Up 70% Annually: Utility-scale battery capacity has grown at a 70% compound annual rate over three years and is projected to exceed 105 GW by the end of 2028, driven largely by co-location with solar facilities, according to PV Magazine. Read More: PV Magazine.
• Arevon Fires Up 1,200 MWh Battery in California: The 300 MW/1,200 MWh Nighthawk Energy Storage Project in Poway began commercial operations under a long-term contract with PG&E, becoming the largest standalone battery system in Arevon Energy's portfolio. Read More: Arevon Energy's portfolio.
• Gas Grabs Nearly Half of PJM's Reformed Queue: Natural gas accounts for close to half of the more than 200 GW in PJM's first interconnection cycle under reformed rules, with battery storage and solar trailing — a shift driven by data center load. Read More: driven by data center load.
• Xcel Takes 1 GW Wind Fight to Colorado Supreme Court: Xcel Energy is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to override a lower court's rejection of an eminent domain request for 550 feet of easement needed to connect two nearly complete wind farms totaling over 1 GW. Read More: Colorado Supreme Court.
• California Probes RWE-Trump Offshore Wind Deal: State officials have opened an investigation into a proposed offshore wind arrangement between RWE and the Trump administration, adding a new front to the ongoing federal-state clash over ocean energy policy. Read More: ocean energy policy.

Solar & Storage

The numbers on U.S. battery storage are now hard to argue with. Utility-scale capacity reached 52 GW by mid-2026, according to PV Magazine, compounding at roughly 70% per year over a three-year stretch. If current project pipelines hold, the installed base could hit 105 GW by the end of 2028. Much of the growth is anchored to solar-plus-storage hybrids — projects like California's Bellefield Solar and Energy Storage Farm that combine generation and dispatch flexibility on a single site. For developers weighing standalone versus co-located designs, the trend line is clear: the market increasingly rewards assets that can shape their own output. Read More: PV Magazine, projects like California's Bellefield Solar and Energy Storage Farm.

The latest proof point landed this week in California. Arevon Energy's Nighthawk Energy Storage Project — 300 MW of power capacity and 1,200 MWh of four-hour LFP storage — began commercial operations in Poway, serving the San Diego region under a long-term offtake agreement with PG&E. It is the largest standalone battery system in Arevon's portfolio. At that scale, a single project can meaningfully shift evening peak supply in a constrained load pocket — exactly the kind of asset California's grid operator has been procuring aggressively since the rolling blackouts of 2020. Read More: largest standalone battery system in Arevon's portfolio.

Elsewhere, Hawthorne Renewable Energy is developing the Appledale Energy Center, a 300 MW solar project paired with a 300 MW/four-hour battery storage system. Engineering firm RINA supported the development work, which specifically targets data-driven electricity demand — the same load profile now pulling gas plants into PJM's queue by the hundreds of gigawatts. The project illustrates how clean energy developers are pitching storage-backed reliability to compete head-to-head with gas for hyperscale customers. Read More: specifically targets data-driven electricity demand.

A more unusual approach is taking shape in northwest Ohio, where a community is siting a solar installation on a reservoir rather than farmland. Floating or reservoir-mounted solar remains a niche strategy in the United States, but land-use conflicts have killed enough utility-scale projects in the Midwest that developers and local governments alike are searching for alternatives. If the model proves replicable — particularly in agricultural states where county commissions face intense pressure from farming constituents — it could open acreage that zoning fights have effectively closed. Read More: siting a solar installation on a reservoir.

But infrastructure, not acreage, is increasingly the binding constraint. A PV Magazine analysis published Thursday argues that transmission access and interconnection timelines have overtaken permitting and siting as the primary bottleneck for solar development. Texas is the sharpest example: unprecedented data center and industrial demand is straining ERCOT's capacity, forcing developers to evaluate grid headroom before they even scout land. That inversion of the traditional development workflow — infrastructure first, site second — carries real cost implications for project finance timelines. Read More: PV Magazine analysis.

Wind Energy

Two nearly finished wind farms totaling more than 1 GW in Colorado cannot deliver a single electron because of 550 feet of easement that a district court refused to grant through eminent domain. Xcel Energy, operating as Public Service Company of Colorado, has now escalated the dispute to the state Supreme Court, asking justices to facilitate interconnection. For investors, the case is a stark reminder that last-mile transmission risk can strand capital even when turbines are already in the ground. The outcome could set precedent for how Colorado courts balance private property rights against the state's clean energy mandates. Read More: asking justices to facilitate interconnection.

Offshore, the California investigation into a proposed deal between RWE and the Trump administration opens yet another chapter in the state's running conflict with the federal government over ocean energy. Details of the arrangement remain thin, but the probe adds regulatory uncertainty for a developer that has already been navigating difficult U.S. market conditions. Ørsted's Q2 results, also reported Thursday, show how punishing those conditions have become: the Danish developer booked a DKK 1.2 billion impairment on U.S. offshore wind assets, blaming rising long-dated interest rates for eroding project economics. Taken together, the RWE probe and the Ørsted writedown signal that the U.S. offshore wind sector continues to face a hostile combination of political friction and expensive capital. Read More: the probe, blaming rising long-dated interest rates.

Policy & Markets

The composition of PJM's reformed interconnection queue may be the most consequential data point of the week. Natural gas now accounts for nearly half of the more than 200 GW of capacity seeking connection across the nation's largest grid operator, with battery storage and solar trailing behind. The reformed queue was supposed to unclog a backlog dominated by speculative renewable projects, but the new rules appear to have tilted the field toward gas — which can more easily meet the financial readiness and site-control requirements that PJM now demands. For clean energy developers operating in PJM's territory from Virginia to Illinois, the message is blunt: the queue reforms that were meant to accelerate deployment may instead be accelerating competition from gas. Read More: with battery storage and solar trailing behind.

Data center demand is the common thread running through several of today's stories. It is the reason gas is flooding PJM's queue. It is the load that the Appledale Energy Center's solar-plus-storage design was engineered to serve. And it is the force straining ERCOT's transmission in Texas. The question for developers and policymakers alike is whether storage-backed renewables can meet these customers' reliability requirements fast enough to compete with gas turbines that promise firm capacity on familiar terms.

LOOKING AHEAD

• Colorado Supreme Court Wind Decision: The court's ruling on Xcel's eminent domain appeal for 550 feet of interconnection easement will determine whether over 1 GW of nearly complete wind capacity can reach the grid — and could reshape transmission siting law in the state.
• California RWE-Trump Investigation: The scope and findings of California's probe into the RWE offshore wind deal could influence whether other European developers pursue federal arrangements or hold back on U.S. offshore commitments.
• PJM Queue Outcomes: As PJM processes its first reformed interconnection cycle, the final mix of approved projects — and the dropout rate for gas versus clean energy applications — will signal whether queue reforms help or hinder the energy transition across 13 states and the District of Columbia.

THE BOTTOM LINE: U.S. battery storage is scaling at a pace that would have seemed implausible five years ago, but PJM's gas-dominated interconnection queue and persistent offshore wind impairments show that capital and grid access — not technology — remain the bottlenecks that will decide how fast the transition actually moves.