The 78.4 kWh Base Core battery can keep your home running during an outage, installs in under an hour, and gives back to the grid — as home battery installations reach a record high | usagoldmines.com

• Base Power raises funds to roll out a new Base Core model
• It protects against power outages and gives back to the grid
• The battery is available to purchase in Texas and Illinois initially

What with plug-in home solar becoming more widely available and household battery power storage increasingly common, there’s growing momentum behind home energy solutions that help to lower electricity bills and reduce pressure on the grid.

There’s more evidence with the news that Base Power just raised a cool $1 billion to scale its large Base Core home battery (via Interesting Engineering): the battery is available in 39.2 kWh and 78.4 kWh versions, and while it’s capable of keeping your home running during power outages, it does a lot more besides too.

Base Power says the Core can be installed in under an hour, can be switched to seamlessly, and will handle extreme weather events too (it works in temperatures of -22 to 122°F or -30 to 50°C). If the standard power network goes out, the Base Core can keep your home running for 36-72 hours depending on capacity and configuration.

When the power’s not out, the Base Core can still reduce your reliance on the grid and cut down on electricity bills. It’s also designed to support the grid, feeding back electricity when additional capacity is needed (though there will always be some in reserve for you). That helps to keep up-front costs down.

Texas and beyond

The Base Core is now available in Texas and Illinois, with pricing dependent on your utility provider. A typical cost listed on the Base Power website is energy for 13.1¢ cents per kWh, a membership fee of $19 per month, and a $695 up-front cost for the battery.

As more of these batteries are installed, the better the system will work, in theory. Base Power says it’s installed battery capacity has grown to more than 500 MWh over the past year, while more partnerships are being signed with electricity companies. After this latest funding round, the company is valued at $13 billion.

There certainly seems to be the demand for these money-saving, energy-storing batteries: last month Ars Technica reported that US home battery installations had hit a new high for the first quarter of 2026, with new units accounting for 673 megawatts of energy supply. For the same quarter, around 1,300 MWh was installed in terms of capacity.

Google has also invested in the idea of tapping into distributed household energy systems, via a deal with Voltus, in part to manage the growing demands of its AI data centers. For home users, the benefits are clear: protection against both rising electricity prices and an increasing number of power outages in vulnerable areas.

With plug-in batteries also on the road to legalization in some countries, it does feel like a home energy boom is coming – and that could help us all navigate the energy crisis and our soaring bills.