​U.S. BESS publicly announced deal activity jumped 42% in Q1 2026. Modo Energy tracked 17 battery energy storage system (BESS) deals, up from 12 in Q4 2025, adding 2.4 GW of capacity across 8 financings, 7 M&A deals, and 2 equity investments. Disclosed debt topped $2.9 billion. ERCOT led with 10 deals, with CAISO and NYISO tied at 3 each.

This is the second edition of Modo Energy's quarterly U.S. BESS capital markets report. For a full review of the previous quarter, see the U.S. BESS Financing Report - Q4 2025.

We track representative deals each quarter. Spotted a missing deal or have questions? Reach the author at alejandro@modoenergy.com.

Key takeaways

• Deal count rose 42% quarter-over-quarter to 17 transactions totaling 2.4 GW. Disclosed debt exceeded $2.9 billion across 7 financings totaling 1.2 GW.
• ERCOT-based projects accounted for 60% of deals. CAISO and NYISO followed, each with 3 transactions.
• M&A activity more than doubled to 7 deals. Banpu Power made its first U.S. BESS acquisition, while Energy Vault, Bimergen Energy, and Hunt Energy expanded existing portfolios.
• European and Asian banks dominated project finance. MUFG led with 821 MW across 4 deals. No U.S.-headquartered bank appeared in the top five lenders.
• Two-hour and four-hour systems split evenly, a shift from Q4 2025 when longer-duration projects dominated late-quarter closings.

Deal activity picked up pace after a mid-year slowdown

The 42% increase in the number of deals from Q4 2025 reversed a mid-year slowdown that had seen activity dip to single digits in Q2 and Q3 2025. Total battery storage capacity across all transactions reached 2.4 GW.

Two deals involved colocated solar-plus-storage assets, expanding the report’s coverage beyond standalone BESS for the first time. Cold Creek paired 85 MW of storage with 430 MW of solar. Meanwhile, Sunraycer’s portfolio combined 204 MW of BESS with 480 MW of solar across three projects in Northeast Texas.

Financing and M&A dominated the deal mix

Financing accounted for 7 of 17 deals, representing 1.5 GW of battery capacity. One of the biggest financings of the quarter was TransGrid Energy's $656 million in project debt for the 382 MW Atlas VIII project in La Paz County, Arizona (CAISO), part of a broader $1.2 billion package including tax equity and ITC transfers.

Sunraycer Renewables secured $715 million from a five-bank syndicate led by NordLB for its Eagles Springs and Lupinus portfolio in Franklin County, Northeast Texas (ERCOT). GridStor closed $120 million from NordLB and Siemens Financial Services for the 150 MW Gunnar project in Hidalgo County, South Texas (ERCOT).

Several financings were underpinned by pre-existing offtake contracts. TransGrid’s Atlas VIII has a 20-year resource adequacy agreement with Southern California Edison. At the same time, GridStor’s Gunnar project is backed by a tolling agreement with a Fortune 500 counterparty.