BloombergNEF now projects 213.9 gigawatts of cumulative U.S. energy storage by 2030 and 434.4 gigawatts by 2036. The figures come from the research firm’s semiannual storage outlook and sit about 30% above its forecast of six months earlier. Senior energy storage analyst Isshu Kikuma supplied the U.S. numbers to Utility Dive.
Help yourself and the planet: The Cool Down makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet, with smart, simple changes to save more and waste less in your everyday life.
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
The upgrade lands in a market that has already moved from a niche resource to routine grid equipment. What changed in the half-year was the arrival of a new buyer, data centers, and a federal tax credit that now runs well into the next decade. BloombergNEF also sees the pairing of batteries with solar tightening each year, and it counts policy-supported projects already queued up to extend that trend. The analysts keep lithium iron phosphate as the dominant chemistry throughout the forecast window.
Kikuma and BloombergNEF attribute the near-term strength to favorable economics for colocated storage and renewables, and to data centers that want capacity both behind the meter and on the grid side. Utility Dive also cites a separate RMI analysis of 30% battery growth rates, published in September, that points toward lower energy costs and community benefits as drivers.
213.9 GW by 2030, 434.4 GW by 2036
Brian Martucci’s Utility Dive report on the outlook lays out the top-line trajectory: more than 30% additional storage capacity over the next 10 years compared with the prior edition. Globally, BloombergNEF expects 3,098 GW and 11,106 GWh of deployments by 2036, roughly 10 times today’s level. The pairing with solar is shifting too. The global ratio of cumulative solar to storage fell from 94 to 1 in 2016 to 7 to 1 in 2026, and BloombergNEF expects 4 to 1 by 2030 and a steady 3 to 1 for annual deployments after that.
In the U.S., 20.7 GW of storage sat alongside 41.3 GW of solar at the end of 2025, about 30% of colocated solar-plus-storage capacity. Roughly 4 GW more was colocated in the first nine months of 2026, and a policy-supported pipeline holds 83.7 GW of storage meant to pair with 149.2 GW of solar.
Data centers and 4.9 GW of on-site batteries
On-site storage at data centers is expected to reach 4.9 GW and 7.4 GWh this year, up from 500 MW and 1.4 GWh in 2025, according to BloombergNEF. It projects 6.3 GW and 8.4 GWh in 2027 and cumulative data center storage of 36 GW and 66 GWh by 2036. Much of that is expected on the grids run by ERCOT, PJM and MISO, and BloombergNEF says PJM data centers are more likely to shift load with batteries than to run behind-the-meter gas because of tighter emissions limits there.
Deals are already visible. Fluence Energy signed a $300 million agreement with a data center operator for behind-the-meter batteries earlier this year, and Canadian Solar’s e-Storage unit said in March it would deliver 500 MW and 2.5 GWh to a major U.S. utility in 2027 to support data center grid infrastructure. A Reuters report from July said NextEra plans a 2.6 GW battery array beside a 2 GW gas plant at a proposed $100 billion Brookfield campus in Kentucky.
Tax credits, tariffs and a 40.9% duty
Federal tax credit eligibility for storage now runs through 2035 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, while solar eligibility ends earlier. Utility Dive’s earlier piece on tax credits and battery growth traces how that certainty was secured. BloombergNEF calls U.S. trade barriers the most aggressive in the world, citing import restrictions on foreign-made power conversion systems and broad recent limits on bulk power equipment imports. In BloombergNEF’s words, the U.S. has been making the most aggressive protectionist efforts, with domestic battery manufacturing the beneficiary. The combined duty on stationary batteries from mainland China is 40.9%.
Sodium-ion and long-duration bets
BloombergNEF expects sodium-ion to reach 9% penetration by 2036 while lithium iron phosphate stays dominant. Sodium-ion maker Peak Energy closed $108 million in financing from General Motors and other backers on the day of the report, aiming for nearly 5 GWh deployed by 2030, and Utility Dive notes proponents argue sodium-ion may outlast lithium over a 20-year life. Google-backed long-duration projects, including a 300 MW and 30 GWh iron-air battery in Minnesota covered in Utility Dive’s report, are still too early for the forecast. Put in simple arithmetic, 434.4 GW in 2036 is just over twice the 213.9 GW expected in 2030. The outlook landed on the same Thursday as Google’s virtual power plant expansion in PJM and Peak Energy’s financing. Sodium-ion cells can be passively cooled, which cuts the parasitic load that lithium systems carry, and Peak Energy has already delivered the first grid-scale sodium-ion storage system in the U.S. A proposed 10 MW and 100 MWh zinc battery backed by Google at a former West Virginia coal mine is the other long-duration entry the forecast leaves out. How quickly they move into it will decide whether the next revision is another 30%.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
Help yourself and the planet: Get The Cool Down →
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
More from Morning Overview
- The FBI told the rest of ShinyHunters to surrender after a 24-year-old was arrested
- Two passengers died at an Ohio toll plaza, and the NTSB now wants the cash lanes shut
- Long use of a common prostate pill is tied to a higher chance of glaucoma
- Ford is recalling 223,472 F-150 pickups because the fuel tank can leak or detach
