Michael Dell's son and a SpaceX alum want to put battery storage in every backyard

In brief: As energy demands from AI, electric vehicles, and other technologies mount, the tech sector's interest in battery storage has grown sharply in recent years. In the latest example, the son of Dell's founder has teamed up with a SpaceX alumnus to break into the fast-growing home battery storage market.

Home battery storage, which can lower electric bills by feeding power back to the grid, is gaining popularity across the US, particularly in warmer regions. A startup led by Zach Dell shows how the industry is expanding options for grid operators.

Although local battery storage has historically been tied to home solar power, the technology is increasingly showing up in homes with or without solar panels. Installing an air-conditioning-compressor-sized battery near a home's electric meter lets homeowners store energy when it's cheap, usually during the day, and helps stabilize the grid during peak hours.

Dell's company, Base Power, installs about 100 39-kWh home batteries a day and expects to double that pace by the end of 2026. So far, it has installed roughly 550 megawatt-hours, on par with a large utility-scale storage project.

The company is helping drive a broader trend. Partly encouraged by state policy in Texas, California, Arizona, and Hawaii, US homeowners installed a record 673 megawatts of storage in the first quarter of this year, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The American Clean Power Association and Wood Mackenzie report that of the 3.3 gigawatts of power capacity and 8.4 gigawatt-hours of total energy storage the US installed during the quarter, home batteries accounted for 1.3 gigawatt-hours.

The end of federal tax incentives for residential solar and battery installations has made both technologies less economically attractive, but individual states are finding their own ways to compensate homeowners who install batteries. Hawaii, for instance, pays $400 per kilowatt of installed capacity, while California offers recurring payments for contributions to the grid.

Base offers batteries that can power homes for 36 to 72 hours during outages and lower energy bills when connected to the grid. In regions with battery network policies, Base can enter agreements with local authorities; where those policies don't exist, it can double as a home backup battery retailer and an electric grid operator.

Early financial backer Antonio Gracias and co-founder Justin Lopas, both with SpaceX ties, believe Base and similar operations can help the US energy grid power a return to domestic manufacturing. Many also see them as a way to help meet the massive energy demands of AI data centers.