Battery boom brings round-the-clock solar closer, Ember says

Solar power is growing fast worldwide, and batteries are starting to stretch its usefulness into the evening. A new report from the energy think tank Ember found solar supplied just over 10% of global electricity in the first half of 2026, up from 8.9% a year earlier and nearly double what it was in 2023. But solar still peaks hard at midday and drops to almost nothing after dark, so power plants running on fossil fuels still handle most of the evening demand.

Batteries are changing that picture, though slowly. Battery storage installations are expected to jump 50% in 2026, and the cost of batteries has fallen 95% since 2010. Ember estimates the batteries installed in 2025 could shift about 18% of new solar generation from daytime into evening hours, up from just 4% five years ago. Some places are moving faster than others: Bulgaria, Chile, and Australia lead the world in pairing batteries with solar, while the U.S. added enough storage in 2025 to shift roughly a quarter of its new solar generation into non-solar hours. In California, solar-plus-battery power now covers more than a quarter of evening demand, up from under 7% in 2023.

None of this changes rebates or programs available to homeowners right now, but it does show a trend: home batteries paired with rooftop solar are part of a broader shift toward using stored solar power after sunset, not just during the day. Ember notes that wind, hydropower, and nuclear power will still be needed to fill gaps when both solar and battery supply run low.