Despite unfavorable federal policies, the U.S. energy storage additions jumped by 31% from a year earlier to 9.7 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the first quarter of 2026, the strongest first quarter in history, a new report showed on Thursday. With energy storage gaining momentum, U.S. developers are set to install more than 610 GWh of energy storage by 2030, according to the report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The estimates through 2030 were revised up from earlier forecasts as investors,…