Residential Solar & Storage Are Booming—But Where's the Ceiling?
How fast is home solar and storage growing?
There are ~350K homes in the U.S. with battery storage and ~5M with solar.
Since 2020, home solar has grown at 17% CAGR, with home battery adoption booming at 65% CAGR — 4x faster than solar.
Households are prioritizing backup power and better energy control. This suggests the future of home energy isn’t just about generation (solar), but intelligent storage and management (batteries + software).
sources: EIA-861M, Net-metered + Non-net-metered
How big will the market get?
Statista forecasts 16.8M solar homes by 2032 (of around 130M total) assuming a more conservative 16% CAGR.
If battery adoption continues to be solar-led (which is debatable!) and attach rates optimistically reach 50% (vs. 20% in 2024 and 10% in 2023), we may reach 6M battery-backed homes by 2032.... Still only about 5% of U.S. homes.
Where’s the ceiling?
I'm optimistic faster deployment will accelerate adoption, but product design and housing stock challenges may be the real bottleneck.
Home batteries have long been designed as a rooftop solar accessory, favoring single-family, owner-occupied homes where permitting, space, and cost cater to higher-income households. Plus, most battery products are built for 240V split-phase power, with limited options for the 208V systems common in multi-tenant buildings.
Here lies the problem: Only half of our housing stock is single-family owner-occupied homes. In the current product landscape, we're at risk of leaving out 45M renters and 41M condos/multifamily homes.
⚠️ Outages are getting worse. Energy security shouldn’t be a luxury. I say it’s time we rethink energy storage for 100% of homes. Let's make battery-backed living the default! 🚀