Why Battery Economics exists
A battery can create value in several ways: lowering peak electricity costs, increasing the value of on-site solar, earning utility or grid-services payments, reducing outage exposure, or supporting facility operations. Which value streams exist, and whether they justify the installed cost, depends on the customer, tariff, load profile, location, equipment, and financing structure.
Residential, commercial, and industrial projects also require different questions. A homeowner may care about backup duration and solar self-consumption. A commercial customer may focus on demand charges and operating continuity. An industrial facility may need to evaluate demand response, power quality, interconnection, and project finance.
Battery Economics has no equipment to sell and no preferred conclusion. Every number is sourced, every assumption is stated, and a battery that does not meet the owner's economic or practical threshold should not be presented as a good investment.
Our editorial commitments
01
Analytical independence
No battery manufacturer, installer, developer, financier, or utility can influence what our math concludes. Our analytical outcomes come from data and modeling, not commercial relationships.
02
Disclosure of economic relationships
When we earn revenue from partnerships or affiliate relationships, we disclose it prominently on the relevant content. Analytical conclusions are never for sale.
03
Willing to publish uncomfortable conclusions
Case studies where utility savings are too small, a VPP payment does not close the gap, or project financing weakens the return are published exactly as the numbers produce them. Our credibility depends on being right, not on being pro-battery.
04
Data verified continuously
Incentive programs, VPP enrollment status, and equipment specifications are verified against manufacturer and program sources on an ongoing basis. The federal battery credit's repeal under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is exactly the kind of change we track rather than wait for user reports on.
05
Corrections prioritized
Errors reported by users are verified and fixed within days, not weeks. The site depends on accurate numbers, and fixes get priority routing over feature additions. See the Contact page for how to report a correction.
Where our data comes from
Battery Economics doesn't guess at numbers. Every calculation and comparison traces back to authoritative sources:
- Electricity prices
- U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) state-level monthly residential electricity price series — the same rate that determines what a full battery charge costs and what a time-of-use spread is worth.
- Battery and system specifications
- Manufacturer datasheets and published documentation for residential and larger-format storage systems, including usable capacity, continuous and peak output, round-trip efficiency, warranty terms, operating limits, and degradation assumptions.
- Federal tax policy
- The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21), which repealed the 30% Residential Clean Energy Credit for battery storage expenditures made after December 31, 2025 — confirmed directly against IRS guidance.
- State, utility & VPP incentive programs
- Program documents from issuing agencies and utilities, including California's SGIP, Massachusetts's ConnectedSolutions and SMART storage adder, New York's NYSERDA and Con Edison BYOB, Vermont's GMP Bring Your Own Device, and others — verified directly with the issuing program, including enrollment-cap and waitlist status where applicable.
- Installed-cost benchmarks
- Since no manufacturer publishes a fully-installed price, cost ranges are triangulated from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory storage-market research, NREL system cost benchmarks, and CPUC program filings — and every gap in that data is disclosed rather than papered over.
Every comparison cites the specific data vintage used. When specs, incentive programs, or tax rules change materially, affected pages are re-verified and re-dated. Full formulas and citations are on the Methodology page.
The founder
Jeff Crittenden, P.E.
Founder and Principal Analyst · Ownership Economics
Battery Economics was founded by Jeff Crittenden, a licensed Professional Engineer with 25+ years in the energy and sustainability space. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology and maintains a P.E. license in the state of Illinois. He works from Chicago.
His career has spanned energy consulting for utility, public sector, and private sector clients, with recent work focused on EV charging infrastructure programs for fleet transportation. That same engineering-and-economics lens led him to build Drive Economics first, for EV total cost of ownership, then Heatpump Economics for home heating — and now Battery Economics, where the same independence problem shows up again: manufacturers and installers publishing content with an answer already picked.
Jeff's motivation is consistent across every site in the Ownership Economics family: people and organizations evaluating major energy purchases rarely receive analysis rigorous enough to support the investment decisions they're making. Battery storage is exactly that kind of decision, and it deserves math that starts from data, not from a sales pitch.
Areas of expertise
See the analysis in practice
Start with a working sizing or runtime tool, then review the incentives and value streams that determine whether storage can earn back its cost.