Tell your state leaders to pass a Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act!

The state legislature of Illinois just passed one of the best-ever state-level clean energy laws in America, and Governor Pritzker has already pledged to sign it into law! The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act mandates state procurement of 3 GW (3,000 MW!) of additional grid-scale energy storage (in practice, batteries) by 2030. Illinois consumers will likely pay an estimated $1 billion over 20 years (via surcharge) to build this resilient power, and it will save consumers an estimated $13.4 billion over 20 years via lowering electricity bills. This is great work — and a brilliant template for more much-needed state-level policy to help fight rising electricity prices and ensure affordable clean energy for American households.

Leading think tank Ember recently released a blockbuster new report on energy storage, detailing how the incredible technological revolution that is grid-scale batteries is just at the beginning of an exponential rise to transform human civilization. In 2024, humanity deployed 160 gigawatt-hours of battery storage (including 91 gigawatt-hours in China alone), which is about as much as was deployed in all of human history before 2024. Costs fell by 40% that same year!

This has created an incredible civilizational virtuous cycle. Better economics for solar leads to more and better solar being built, which leads to good economics for batteries, which leads to more and better batteries being built, which leads to good economies for solar, and so on and so forth. We’re just in the first few years of this, and the possibility-space for solar and battery chemistries is so immense that we’ll likely see immense progress for the foreseeable future. Humanity now has the technology to ensure that the fundamental economic input of electricity just gets cheaper and cleaner and more abundant for decades to come. The potential is limitless: every five days, our Sun provides roughly as much energy to Earth as the planet’s entire estimated fossil fuel reserves.

Fast-improving grid-scale battery technology is now a world-transforming technological revolution — and so far, China has been leading the way. The new Illinois Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act provides a ready-to-go model for state governments to help Americans get a piece of the action, fighting inflation and air pollution while bringing savings and grid stability. State leaders should introduce, champion, pass, celebrate, and run on CRGA-style battery-boom bills!

Tell your state leaders to pass a Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act!