More than a decade ago, in 2010, the energy capacity of large-scale battery storage in the United States amounted to 22 megawatt hours. In 2020, that capacity had increased to 2,378.2 megawatt hours, and by the end of 2022 it had climbed exponentially to 22,385.1 megawatt hours. As Lucy Fan, principal at North Sky Capital and an energy storage expert for North Sky’s infrastructure team, says, “Now that there are commercial opportunities across the different ISOs [Independent System Operators], I would say energy storage has arrived.”

Technologically, battery capabilities have improved; logistically, the large amount of invested capital and human ingenuity during the past decade has helped to advance mining, refining, manufacturing and deploying capabilities for the energy storage sector; and regulatorily, governments around the world have been passing legislation to make battery energy storage systems (BESS) more economically viable.

BESS are being built for a va