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Posted 10 months ago | 2 minute read

Solar plus storage dominating US power grid

Improving battery technology and the growth of variable renewable generation are driving a surge of interest in “hybrid” power plants that combine renewables generating capacity with co-located batteries according to a report by the Berkeley National Laboratory.

The report, Hybrid Power Plants: Status of Operating and Proposed Plants 2024 Edition, which was published on September 19, highlights the substantial growth of solar plus storage systems within the US power plant market, reflecting a shift from frequency regulation to markets focused on energy arbitrage and curtailment mitigation. As prices continue to decline, the market is absorbing these changes, and terawatts of capacity are now waiting in interconnection queues.

According to the report, 469 hybrid power plants are currently operational across the US, with solar PV and storage systems making up 61% of these, or 288 facilities. These co-located projects account for 7.8GW of storage capacity and 24.2GWh of energy. In 2023 alone, 66 of the 80 hybrid plants added were solar plus storage systems.

The expansion of solar-plus-storage installations began gaining traction in 2020, initially driven by smaller projects in Massachusetts. This trend has accelerated with the growth of larger-scale projects in California, Texas, and Florida, significantly increasing overall capacity. Massachusetts leads the nation with 89 solar plus storage facilities, each with less than 7MW of capacity, largely spurred by the state’s SMART program, which incentivizes battery integration and efficient DC-to-AC ratios. California follows as the state with the second-largest number of solar plus storage projects, totalling 72. Almost half of these West Coast installations have more than 100 MW of solar capacity. Arizona and California lead in adding new hybrid plants, with 15 and 16 new facilities, respectively, coming online in 2023.

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