Here’s what’s driving the storage market — and where the next wave of opportunity is hiding in plain sight.
If you’ve been in a room with solar people lately, you’ve probably noticed that it’s getting harder to talk about solar without also talking about batteries. The storage market has gone from “nice add-on” to something that feels more essential (especially in certain markets). At Aurora Solar’s Empower conference, Rachel Liddell (Director of Product Management, Aurora) and Chris Collins (Founder and CEO, Ohm Analytics) sat down to talk through what’s actually driving that growth — and where the next big opportunity for installers is sitting, largely unclaimed.
Spoiler: it’s probably in your existing customer list.
Watch the whole session to learn more (and earn 1 NABCEP CEU).
Driver One: Nobody Wants to Sell Electrons for Less Than They’re Worth
The first big force behind storage adoption is pretty simple math, even if the regulatory history behind it is anything but. As net metering compensation has declined in California and other markets, selling excess solar power back to the grid has become less and less financially beneficial. Why give your electrons away at a discount when you can save them for later and use them yourself?
“People want to conserve the energy that they’re generating to use later in order to offset their utility bill,” Rachel explained. “Instead of selling it back to the grid, they want to drink those electrons later, if you will.”
And they will. And they are — especially homeowners who have the appetite for a larger upfront investment and the willingness to think about their energy bill over the long term. Self-consumption is now a core part of the storage value proposition, particularly in markets where net metering rates have taken a hit.
Driver Two: People Are Tired of Sitting in the Dark
The second driver is less about financial optimization and more about a feeling — specifically, the feeling of watching your fridge contents slowly warm up while your neighbor’s generator hums roars away (spewing fumes). Resilience has become a major purchase motivator, and the numbers back it up: The share of homeowners citing climate-related concern for their home has grown from around 30% to 60%.
Chris, who lives in Vermont and has Powerwalls through Green Mountain Power’s VPP program, put it simply: “There are so many outages. We’ve had two just this spring, four or five hours. It’s so top of mind.” If you live in Florida or Texas, the same story plays out with hurricanes and heat waves instead of nor’easters. And when compared to dirty, loud generators that suck up fuel and never pay back, batteries are an obvious choice.
The backup pitch writes itself. People aren’t just buying batteries — they’re buying peace of mind. And in a market that’s seen a lot of turbulence lately, “Your lights stay on when everyone else’s go out” is a pretty strong message.
Driver Three: VPPs Are Starting to Actually Pay
This one is still emerging, and both Rachel and Chris were careful to say so — but it’s moving faster than you might think, and the dollars are getting serious.
A virtual power plant (VPP) is essentially a network of home batteries that a utility or aggregator can dispatch to help balance the grid during peak demand. In exchange, the homeowner gets compensated — sometimes in cash, sometimes in the form of a discounted or heavily subsidized battery to begin with.
The GMP program in Vermont, which Chris participates in, covers 80% of the cost of the battery. Not a rebate — 80%. “You’re basically getting resiliency at a huge discount to what you would normally pay,” he said.
In Massachusetts, the Connected Solutions program is going further, offering elevated payments — around $200 per kilowatt — for batteries in areas where the utility is considering expensive substation upgrades. The logic is called grid deferral: It’s cheaper to pay homeowners to provide flexibility than to build new infrastructure. In some constrained areas like Nantucket, the rates are going even higher.
In the PJM territory, regulators are actively pushing utilities to develop these programs. The wheels turn slowly, but they are turning.
For installers, the VPP angle can definitely help. When a homeowner can cover a significant portion of their battery cost through a utility program, the math on the whole system looks different.
How to Talk About VPPs Without Losing Anyone
Here’s a communication tip that came up in the session that’s worth stealing: Be careful about how you mention climate.
Not because climate doesn’t matter, but because “this will help in the future” is a tough sell when someone’s looking at a five-figure investment. What can land — and what utilities have found works even when they’re just asking people to turn down their AC for an hour — is the neighbor angle.
“Hey, we’re all dealing with higher utility rates. This is a way to get resiliency, but also help your neighbors.” That framing of shared benefit, of being part of a community solution to a community problem, resonates in a way that abstract environmental appeals sometimes don’t. Worth trying at the kitchen table.
The Opportunity Nobody’s Fully Figured Out Yet
Here’s the number that should make every installer sit up: There are approximately 5 million homes across the US that have solar and don’t have a battery. That’s the retrofit market — and it’s historically represented about 20-25% of storage sales, which means it’s been underserved relative to its size.
These are warm leads. People who already bought into solar, already trust the technology, and are now watching their net metering rates decline, reading about blackouts, and maybe getting a mailer from their utility about a new VPP program. They’re primed.
“Installers I talk to are trying to figure out how to pursue it, trying to figure out the profitability and making it work,” Rachel noted. “But it’s certainly a big opportunity.”
The profitability question is real, and the logistics of a retrofit aren’t always simpler than a new install. But the demand signal is there, and it’s getting louder. Installers who build a repeatable retrofit motion now — outreach, proposal workflow, financing options, clear messaging on backup and VPP benefits — are going to have a significant advantage as the market matures.
Watch the Full Session On Demand
This post covers the highlights from the storage discussion, but there’s more in the full session. For a deeper conversation on how VPP programs are being structured across different markets, what’s next for the retrofit opportunity, how Aurora can help, and a look at the preferred breakfast options of each panelist, watch the full session on demand. You’ll earn a NABCEP CEU for your trouble.
Watch the Empower Storage Session →
This post is based on a panel discussion from Aurora Solar’s Empower conference, featuring Rachel Liddell (Aurora Solar) and Chris Collins (Ohm Analytics), covering the drivers of storage growth, VPP programs, and the retrofit opportunity.
