Solar Projects With Batteries Reach 16% Share
Co-located storage is projected to pass 30% of new U.S. solar within two years, according to federal energy data.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Energy
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About 16% of new U.S. solar projects now include co-located battery storage, roughly 41 GW of solar capacity as of September 2026, up from about 2% in 2017. The development is shipped and operating, not announced or research-stage.
Why it matters
Co-located storage lets operators choose whether solar output goes to the grid or into a battery, based on wholesale prices that tend to fall when solar supply is high and rise as it drops. The share jumped to 25% of projects in 2023, fell over 2024 and 2025, and has since recovered as storage is paired with new solar.
The figures come from federal energy statistics tracking project-level deployment, showing 41 GW of co-located solar capacity against a 2017 baseline of 5 GW. Storage capacity grew more than 26-fold in Texas and nearly sevenfold in California from 2021 to 2026, while solar generation rose 421% in Texas and 90% in California over the same period. Projections of a co-located share above 30% remain unverified forecasts.
The players
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
The federal statistical agency that tracks U.S. energy generation, capacity, and interconnection data, and which projects the co-located share will pass 30% within two years.
The details
Solar-plus-storage plants pair photovoltaic panels with batteries on the same site, so the operator can direct solar output to the grid or charge the battery depending on wholesale prices. Plants manage combined output to capture the most value as prices change through the day. Wholesale prices in regions with heavy solar participation tend to dip when solar output is high and rise as it falls, which is the economic reason the pairing makes sense.
Timeline
2017: about 2% of new solar capacity was co-located with storage.
2023: the co-located share jumped to 25% of new projects.
2024 and 2025: the co-located share fell in both years.
September 2026: co-located storage reached 16%, about 41 GW of new solar.
Over the next two years: the co-located share is projected to pass 30%.
The Tech Race
Co-located storage is spreading across the Southwest, where Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada show high co-location shares alongside Texas and California's rapid solar and battery growth. Solar-plus-storage makes up 86% of proposed hybrid facilities in the interconnection queue, indicating the pairing is the dominant design for new hybrid projects.
Solar projects with co-located batteries are already operating and can shift output to match higher-priced hours. Availability for individual households is not addressed in the source, and the extraction gives no pricing or timeline for consumer access.
The takeaway
Watch whether the co-located share climbs past the projected 19% by the end of 2026 and toward 30% within two years, which would confirm the trajectory. The 2024 and 2025 decline before the recent recovery is the pattern to track in future EIA interconnection data.
Further reading
For the wider context of how grid storage is changing power markets, see our Energy coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Utility Dive.
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