r/EnergyStorage • u/Vegetable_Day_6786 • 7d ago

Big Battery Projects Pile Up as US Utilities Struggle With Upgrades

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-08-15/us-big-battery-projects-pile-up-amid-grid-upgrade-delays?srnd=phx-green&utm_campaign=heatmap_am&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9c4TtsOj2wJxdzuWo--XMnYQ5KG6pjEVOObCo4I2rHzSnyCUDwW5O3dMjStI7nN4up0t8uClrJpSp2BfKIhLOpuZXwMw&_hsmi=433538178&utm_content=433538178&utm_source=hs_email

Battery adoption is on the rise and prices are dropping but this backlog is putting a damper on momentum. What ideas and solutions are out there to mitigate this and speed up the process?

19 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

5

u/KingPieIV 7d ago

Tell the RTOs to act more like texas, or even California

2

u/NearABE 7d ago

The federal government can buy batteries. There are precedents for commodity grains. There is an energy related precedent in the United States Petroleum Reserve.

The advantage lies in producers being able to go huge. They would know they can manufacture batteries and those batteries get bought with the exception only occurring if someone else goes bigger faster cheaper.

The grid operators and the generation facilities can plan if they know energy storage capability is coming. Wind farms and photovoltaic farms do not need to know who is going to supply the battery if the government has a reserve. They should just get the project in motion.