Solar power has been experiencing a massive boom for fifteen years, with an annual growth rate of 28% over the last decade. More recently, grid storage batteries have established a boom of their own. These battery banks, which can store the energy produced by solar and other sources, are expanding rapidly.
Currently, there are about 600 gigawatts of battery storage capacity across the globe. A record-high amount of about 112 gigawatts of that was installed in 2025, a 48% increase over the previous year, and a tenfold increase over the amount in 2021.
More than half of the world’s grid battery capacity installed last year was in China. The US accounted for 16%. Other places seeing rapidly increasing amounts of grid storage are Australia and the U.K.
The combination of solar installations and battery storage represents a reliable and steady source of power. But ten years ago, for every 56 megawatts of solar installed, only 1 MW of storage was installed. By last year, that ratio was down to 6-to-1. This year, it is expected to drop to 4-to-1.
The primary driving force for this storage boom is the same one that has made solar power the most rapidly growing source of electricity: dramatically lowered prices. The price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped by more than 90% over the last 15 years. Beyond that, the world is adding incredible amounts of wind and solar power, and storage is the way to stockpile that energy so it can be dispatched later when the grid needs it. As a result, the rapid growth in storage is expected to continue for the rest of the decade.
