Today’s homebuyers and homeowners are rightfully concerned about affordability and resilience, recognizing that the cost and benefits of owning a home are long term propositions. Green Builder Media’s COGNITION Smart Data surveys have found that all generations now prioritize the long-term cost of ownership more than the upfront costs when making decisions about buying or remodeling a home. In addition, most homeowners and buyers, particularly from younger generations, are willing to pay more for sustainability upgrades that lower ongoing costs of homeownership.
In the face of rising energy and insurance costs as well as the increasing threat of power outages and damage from increasingly severe storms, 70% of millennials and Gen Z buyers and homeowners are willing to pay more for solar and storage along with other energy efficiency upgrades. Nearly half of Baby Boomers and Gen X buyers and homeowners are also willing to pay more upfront for those features.
Why Battery Storage Matters
There are more than 5 million solar installations in the U.S., 97% of which are on residential rooftops, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. As of early 2025, approximately 500,000 U.S. homes had battery storage, which was 64% more than in 2024, according to Bloomberg.com March 2025 data.
“Batteries help homeowners move toward true energy independence, ensuring every kilowatt-hour generated by their solar system is utilized to its fullest, providing reliability and potential savings,” says Matt Brost, vice president of new homes sales for Sunrun, the largest solar and battery storage company in America. “Batteries give customers control over their energy usage and peace of mind against blackouts. In addition to providing outage protection, batteries help maximize the savings of solar and provide the ability to make extra money by participating in grid support programs called distributed power plants.”
Approximately 70% of Sunrun’s new solar installations include a battery, and more than 217,000 Sunrun customers already have home batteries, he says.
The biggest benefit for those customers is keeping their lights on when the grid goes down, Brost says.
“When you have an on-site battery, you’re protected,” he says. “Critical circuits will stay powered so that your appliances keep working, your food won’t spoil, you can charge your laptop and your phone and stay connected.”
Consumers can generate and store their own electricity with a system that renews every day.
“We’ve had existing solar-plus-storage customers who have gone nearly two weeks relying solely on their Sunrun energy system while the grid was down,” Brost says. “They didn’t skip a beat and had all the comforts of home while everyone else was scrambling to find gas for a generator.”
Battery storage provides control for customers over their own power usage and extends that benefit ever after the sun sets, Brost says.
“When Sunrun adds a battery, customers can tap into their own solar power that was captured during the day and use it at night—maximizing potential savings and hedging against rising utility rates,” he says.
Affordability and Battery Storage
The average cost of a home battery system varies widely according to multiple factors, including your location and the amount of power you want to store. According to CNET, the average cost ranges from $3,000 to $12,000 or more. However, the cost can be offset by tax credits, rebates and selling electricity to your utility company in some cases.
The best time to add battery storage is when a customer installs their solar system, according to Brost, because this provides a seamless installation process and the benefits of energy generation and storage from day one. Still, adding battery storage can be a relatively simple proposition for existing homes.
“Batteries can be installed in various locations,” Brost says. “Depending on the region, batteries can be installed outside or in a garage. All wiring will be part of the installation process that’s done by a professional. No existing outlets are needed.”
Existing solar customers can add one or multiple batteries to their system.
“We help homeowners select the right amount of battery storage for their home’s needs so that they can utilize the stored energy on a daily basis in order to avoid peak utility rates and have protection against power outages,” Brost says.
Nearly two decades ago, Sunrun introduced their “solar-as-a-service” subscription model, which doesn’t require any upfront costs. Batteries are now part of that subscription model.
“Battery pricing depends on the manufacturer, regional incentives, and the length of the customer’s subscription,” he says. “Professional installation, maintenance, warranty and system monitoring by Sunrun are included in the cost of the battery.”
Batteries installed by Sunrun have a 10-year manufacturer's product warranty, which also guarantees the health of the battery’s capacity at year 10, Brost says. Customers who install a battery with their Sunrun solar system subscription, Sunrun will cover the battery for the entire length of the customer agreement.
Battery Storage Instead of a Generator
An advantage of pairing residential solar with battery storage is that there’s no need for a noisy, polluting generator, Brost says.
“That means you don’t have to worry about running out and trying to buy gas for a generator during an outage,” he says. “Our customers usually don’t even notice when there’s an outage. It’s a seamless experience when their home switches over to battery back-up power.”
Home batteries recharge daily from the rooftop solar panels, unlike generators, which only have power with access to fuel.
“In the aftermath of severe weather, gas station pumps are not always working and oftentimes there is a limited supply of gas,” Brost says.
New Energy Source: Distributed Power Plants
Sunrun is the largest owner and operator of distributed power plants, which support power grids across the country and empower customers to participate in the shared energy economy. In 2025, Sunrun networked together more than 100,000 energy systems to provide grid-saving energy more than 1,300 times. Sunrun’s distributed power plants dispatched 416 megawatts across 17 programs in Texas, New York, California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Puerto Rico and elsewhere, according to Brost.
“Sunrun’s distributed power plants are created by networking together customers’ individual solar and storage systems to act as a powerful grid resource by pushing energy onto the grid—just like a traditional, centralized power plant,” Brost explains. “Customers benefit by being compensated for sharing their stored solar energy with the grid and helping their communities by preventing blackouts and lowering costs for all ratepayers. We always make sure that customers participating in distributed power plant programs maintain a portion of their battery for personal back-up power in the event of an outage.”
Most homeowners (68%) are concerned that traditional utility companies cannot meet rising power demands, according to a fall 2025 survey by Sunrun. In addition, 80% worry that demand from data centers will drive up their electricity costs. Reliable home energy is crucial to homeowners – with 89% saying that going 24 hours without electricity would be worse than not having gas in the car.
Rising power outages with consequences from spoiled food, lost income from the inability to communicate for work and interrupted access to medical equipment were reported by 87% of survey respondents, demonstrating how crucial energy independence is to homeowners today.
Publisher’s Note: This content is made possible by our Today’s Homeowner Campaign Sponsors: Whirlpool Corporation and ProVia. Learn more about building and buying homes that are more affordable and less resource intensive.