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The US added a record 20.2 GWh of battery storage in just 3 months

What HN thinks

A battery thread that inevitably detoured through Chinese coal statistics, Dune spice harvesters, and Factorio accumulator strategy.

Batteries' real value is fast grid services
Commenters stress that grid batteries earn their keep by responding in milliseconds, smoothing peaks and killing the business case for gas peakers, not by storing huge amounts of energy.
Scale is still small versus demand
Others note 20 GWh is only minutes of US consumption and that long-duration storage for dark, windless periods remains unsolved, though some reply that batteries only need to cover the evening gap.
Alternatives and China tangent
Flywheels and pumped hydro were pitched and largely rebutted on cost and geography, while a long side debate argued whether China's coal use is actually rising or falling.

Consensus: Most agree battery storage is growing fast, getting cheaper and already valuable for grid stability, while acknowledging it is far from replacing firm generation on its own.

Recommended in the comments

Electricity Maps ↗ (service): Used to watch battery capacity growth and daily charge/discharge patterns in California.
Base Power (service): Suggested as a way to make home batteries pay off even where solar does not.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 5 hours ago.

Points: 243
Comments: 184
Best rank: #3
Posted: 2026-10-29 by ljf
Category: Science

battery-storage grid-storage renewable-energy seia energy-policy tesla-megapack

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