The archive · Climate & Energy · Product decision · 2023–2026
Base Power's lease-don't-sell battery bet: 17k homes as a grid VPP, $13B by 2026
Base Power leases 25–50 kWh home batteries to Texans and dispatches them into ERCOT markets as a virtual power plant; $2B+ raised, 17,000 homes by Aug 2026.
Base Power
What the business is
Base Power is an Austin retail electricity provider that installs 25–50 kWh home batteries for a small upfront fee plus an electricity subscription, then discharges the networked batteries to the grid at peak times.
How it started
Zach Dell and Justin Lopas founded Base Power in 2023 in Austin as a licensed electricity provider in Texas's deregulated retail market. Its product was backup power as a service: lease the battery, bundle it with electricity, and use the home fleet as a grid resource rather than selling hardware.
What happened
After a $200M round in April 2025, Base closed a $1B Series C on 2025-10-08 led by Addition (with CapitalG, Lightspeed, Ribbit, Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners and Elad Gil) at a $3B pre-money valuation, having sold more than 100 MWh of residential storage. It qualified for Texas's Aggregated Distributed Energy Resource (ADER) program, letting its batteries bid into ERCOT's wholesale market, partnered with homebuilder Lennar, and began building its first factory on the former Austin American-Statesman site.
How it ended up
Scaling: on 2026-08-03 Base announced a $1B Series D at a $13B valuation led by Ribbit, Addition, Valor Equity Partners and JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group. It had installed batteries at 17,000 homes (over 500 MWh), mostly in Texas and newly in Illinois, with its US-built Base Core battery line running at the Austin factory.
Background
Zach Dell and Justin Lopas founded Base Power in Austin in 2023 as a licensed electricity provider in Texas's deregulated retail market. Instead of selling storage, it leases 25–50 kWh home batteries bundled with an electricity subscription, for an upfront fee of $95–$995 depending on market, and keeps the right to discharge the fleet to the grid when the network is stressed.
The wager was that treating backup power as a service would unlock homes that would never spend $10,000+ on a battery, and that Texas rules would pay the company for what the batteries do for the grid. After a $200M round in April 2025, Base raised a $1B Series C on 2025-10-08 led by Addition at a $3B pre-money valuation, qualified for Texas's ADER program (which lets aggregated home batteries participate directly in ERCOT's wholesale market), partnered with homebuilder Lennar, and broke ground on an Austin factory at the former American-Statesman site.
On 2026-08-03 Base announced another $1B, a Series D led by Ribbit, Addition, Valor Equity Partners and JPMorganChase Strategic Investment Group that lifted its valuation from $4B to $13B. It had installed batteries at 17,000 homes with more than 500 MWh of capacity, mostly in Texas and newly in Illinois, and was manufacturing its own 39.2 kWh Base Core battery in Austin. The open question is whether the model depends on Texas-style competitive retail and ADER-style market access, or whether utility partnerships can carry it to states with less deregulated markets.
What has to be true
- Texas's deregulated retail market lets any licensed provider sell electricity plans, so Base could bundle a battery into a subscription instead of a hardware purchase.
- The ADER program lets aggregated home batteries bid into ERCOT's wholesale market, giving Base a second revenue stream that makes low upfront pricing possible.
- Vertical integration paid off: its Austin factory makes a bigger, ground-installed battery that its own installers can fit faster than imported wall units.
- The service framing tapped mass demand: 17,000 homes and more than 500 MWh in under three years, then expansion into Illinois.
What can be applied
Lease the hardware, keep dispatch: a $10,000 purchase becomes a subscription, and grid-service revenue exists only where rules let aggregated home batteries sell into the market.
Aftermath
As of August 2026 Base Power is scaling on the back of the Series D: it is hiring installers, producing the US-made Base Core (39.2 kWh, 20 kW) at its Austin factory, and has a contract to source domestic battery cells by the end of 2026. The company sees runway in Texas and Illinois under current market rules and is working with utilities on home-battery network programs for states without Texas-style competitive retail markets.
Sources
- Base Power raises $1B to deploy home batteries everywhere
- Base Power raises $1B to reinvent Texas' grid with home batteries
- Base Power raises $1B to get big batteries into more homes
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card