Battery storage is a key part of the clean energy future, and it is increasingly becoming central to modern energy management systems. In 2024, power providers in the U.S. added a record 10.3 GW of new battery storage capacity. In 2025, the number could double, setting a new record, as the EIA predicts 18.2 GW of utility-scale battery storage will be added to the grid.
As a partner of renewable energy, battery storage is helping to lessen our reliance on fossil fuels, balancing supply and demand of energy, and improving grid stability. But how exactly do batteries achieve this? Below are the top three sustainability uses for battery storage.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
One of the biggest clean energy trends in the past few years is the rapidly growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). In 2024, an estimated 1.7 million EVs were sold in the U.S., marking a 21% increase from the 1.4 million sold in 2023. These cars are becoming highly desirable: in 2024, 7 of the top 10 cars recommended by Consumer Reports were fully electric or hybrid vehicles.
Battery storage technology is fundamental in the success of EVs. EVs have an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine, which is powered by a large traction battery pack that must be plugged in to a wall outlet or charging equipment. EV charging stations can be set up at people’s homes, workplaces, or public locations.
Some businesses like restaurants are even installing charging stations as an added incentive for customers to visit and to differentiate themselves from competitors.
Because EV motors run on electricity, they don’t emit exhaust from a tailpipe, and all-electric vehicles are considered zero-emission vehicles by the EPA. Even though some emissions result from generating electricity, of course, battery-powered motors are helping significantly reduce pollution overall—especially when the energy comes from renewable sources like solar—and providing a cleaner transportation alternative.
VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS
In recent years, the U.S. has entered a grid reliability crisis. Because energy usage is growing faster than the infrastructure, demand is often too high, causing dangerous events like energy blackouts. Virtual power plants (VPPs) are an innovative new way energy companies are utilizing batteries alongside other technologies to address these energy management problems and increase grid reliability.
VPPs help reduce the amount of energy needed from the grid to prevent demand surges. They are called “virtual” because they aren’t located in one giant facility, as traditional power plants are. Instead, a VPP is a connected aggregation of various distributed energy resource (DER) technologies—things like residential solar panels that generate renewable energy and battery storage near the site of generation.
These small technologies located across various homes and businesses can be aggregated into a large group, a VPP, enabling them to provide significant contributions to the electricity grid and offset the amount of power needed from traditional power plants. This energy solution is growing in popularity, and by 2030, VPPs in the U.S. could lessen peak demand by 60 gigawatts.
Learn more about VPPs and how Budderfly is using battery storage technology to help the grid and our customers in this interview with our Director of Energy Markets and Resource Planning, Beth Crouchet.
BACKUP GRID
Because the grid is sometimes unreliable, many home and business owners are incorporating batteries as backup grid at their facilities.
Typically combined with rooftop solar panels, batteries can be used to store excess renewable energy to be used if energy from the grid becomes unstable or, in the event of a blackout, completely inaccessible. They can also be tapped into when demand of the grid is high, leading to “peak demand” charging that makes grid energy a lot more expensive during certain times of day.
Sophisticated “demand response” technology has sensors and software that can understand changes to demand in real time and adjust energy usage. Often this can simply look like using less energy by reducing set points for your HVAC, for example. But it can also entail switching your energy source to batteries for more savings.
Battery storage technology has improved greatly in recent years, and luckily batteries have become more affordable at the same time. They are helping us maximize the benefits provided from green energy generation and working to protect our fragile energy infrastructure. Budderfly incorporates battery storage in our solutions, and we have plans to do even more.
We even have a battery testing lab to see how this technology can be used to help our customers get more savings and energy reliability. Learn more about our battery lab in the video below!
To learn more about Budderfly’s energy saving solutions, or how batteries tie in, contact one of our energy experts today.