Bridging the Gap: How Emerging State Policies are Making Energy Storage Affordable and Accessible

As energy storage becomes an increasingly integral tool to deliver numerous benefits to communities and to the electric grid, the question of how to make this new technology broadly affordable and accessible becomes more urgent, particularly for state agencies tasked with meeting clean energy goals. This report compiles the results of independent research conducted by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) and Sandia National Laboratories, providing a summary of emerging affordability and accessibility approaches in leading state energy storage programs. The intent is to create a body of reference material that can be used in state energy storage policymaking across diverse geographical and regulatory jurisdictions. 

The report highlights emerging strategies used by the leading states to advance energy storage adoption in underserved and low-income communities. While the challenges are daunting, early results from at least some of these programs show that positive results can be achieved when states adopt a focused and long-term commitment. 

The report is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy—Office of Electricity, through its Energy Storage Division.