When it comes to supplying and scaling affordable, abundant and secure energy for the United States, there’s one thing politicians on both sides of the aisle can agree on: Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) is non-negotiable for growing and protecting the United States’ energy independence.
While President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) changes the political and financial landscape for many renewable energy investments, the bill preserves investment tax credits (ITC) for LDES technology like Hydrostor’s Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) —acknowledging the importance of these technologies to modernizing the grid and growing the economy.
Critical investments in energy storage projects are already underway, and the bill signals that the U.S. is “all systems go” for scaling LDES solutions.
Growing economies require abundant energy
President Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order called for policies that “protect the United States’s economic and national security and military preparedness by ensuring that an abundant supply of reliable energy is readily accessible in every State and territory of the Nation.”
From natural gas and hydropower to solar and nuclear energy, America’s electricity grids are fueled by an impressive diversity of energy sources. But variety isn’t enough to meet the exponential growth of energy demand powering the American economy. According to one study conducted by ICF, “U.S. electricity demand is expected to grow by 25% by 2030 and by 78% by 2050, compared to 2023.” Whether it’s the rise of new technologies like AI and the accompanying need for data centers, building electrification, or the re-shoring of manufacturing, the strength of electricity grids will dictate the strength of economies.
But focusing exclusively on electricity generation is no longer sufficient. The United States’ energy security strategy must be complimented by utility-scale, long-duration energy storage that’s domestically made and built to last for generations to come.
Why long duration storage—and why now?
The most obvious benefit of Long Duration Energy Storage is in the name. By storing affordable energy to deploy on demand and at scale, LDES is the cornerstone for a reliable, dynamic grid. The right LDES infrastructure and mix of technologies, ensures that there’s abundant energy supply to buffer unpredictable demand and variable supply—and to support a growing economy.
Hydrostor’s A-CAES technology offers clean, base-load power for the economic growth the Administration has promised. Hydrostor’s Willow Rock Energy Storage Center in California will provide 500 MW of storage for more than 8 hours—enough electricity to keep a city of 500,000 people humming—providing the reliable power the economy needs to thrive while also bringing jobs and investment to the area. Willow Rock does all this while also sourcing materials and labor that can be made in the U.S.
Projects like this are huge investments in American communities and American workers. The Willow Rock project being built in Kern County, California, will employ more than 6,500 people throughout the course of construction—and once complete, will provide 40 full-time jobs for its 50-year operational lifetime.
More than one-third of the CAPEX costs for an A-CAES project are the costs of building the underground cavern with on-site mining labor. This, coupled with the onsite labor needed to integrate the topside equipment, build the transmission, and construct each utility-scale project, means that a significant percentage of the CAPEX for our projects is spent on paychecks for American workers.
Hydrostor has had an active presence in East Kern County communities for the past four years and has already established itself as a committed and reliable community partner by supporting numerous social and business groups. As Kern Economic Development Corporation president and CEO, Richard Chapman, told the California Energy Commission (CEC) in June 2025, “Hydrostor has been a strong community partner, and we are excited to see them investing in our region.”
Construction on the Willow Rock project is expected to begin soon. The project has benefitted from a conditional loan commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office, and the DOE has just re-initiated the project’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review in order to keep the permitting timeline on-track. Combine this with an imminent final permitting decision from the CEC, and Hydrostor is likely to begin hiring to build its first A-CAES facility in California in early 2026.
Just the beginning
The momentum doesn’t stop in California. Hydrostor is exploring development in other areas of the country where there’s a well-defined need and target for LDES to provide additional grid stability. New York already has defined its goals for procuring LDES, and states like Arizona, Virginia, Nevada, and Colorado aren’t far behind.
As LDES supporters and partners already know, the value of projects like Willow Rock go well beyond their direct contribution to the grid. Without these critical pieces of the puzzle, the grid will struggle to manage growing and increasingly dynamic demand in the coming years, and the economy will struggle along with it. With them—supported by robust tailwinds, like the continued eligibility of energy storage for the ITC and Hydrostor’s DOE loan—all of the other puzzle pieces of the modern grid can deliver to their full capacity.
Investment in LDES are foundational investments in the future of America’s grid and America’s economy, and that’s something we can all get behind.