The population of hybrid power plants — systems combining battery energy storage with renewable energy-based generation technology — is rapidly increasing in the U.S.

According to data compiled by U.S. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), there were 374 hybrid plants with capacities in excess of 1 MW operating nationwide at the end of 2022. These facilities represent a 25% increase in number compared to the end of 2021 and provide nearly 41 GW of generating capacity and 5.4 GW/15.2 GWh of energy storage. Photovoltaic (PV) plus storage plants dominate in terms of number at 213, storage capacity at 4.0 GW/12.5 GWh and storage duration of 3.1 hours. Other hybrid plant configurations added to the U.S. grid in 2022 included fossil fuel-hybrid, wind plus storage, wind plus PV and geothermal plus PV.

At the close of 2022, there was roughly as much storage capacity operating within PV plus storage hybrid plants as in standalone storage plants — about 4 GW each. The data also shows there were 51% more hybrid plants — representing 59% more generating capacity — in interconnection queues across the U.S. than at the end of 2021. Solar also dominates these planned plants, with 457 GW of solar capacity proposed as a hybrid, representing about 48% of all solar capacity in the queues, most pairing PV with battery storage. There were 24 GW of wind capacity proposed as a hybrid also paired with storage.