Batteries that supplement energy grid usage are steadily gaining popularity in the United States, with California and Texas leading the way. In 2024, price arbitrage, storing electricity when prices are low and selling the saved power when prices are high, was the most prevalent use case for utility-scale batteries according to a survey the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) conducted. The EIA also reported that utility-scale battery storage added a new record of 15 gigawatts (GW) to the electric grid in 2025. More than 40 GW have been added to the grid over the last five years.
Batteries can store energy generated by solar, wind, or the grid in order to provide consistent power, supplement during outages, and cut down on utility costs. As batteries grow in popularity worldwide due to their economic viability and contribution to increased energy resilience, accessible and trusted solar and meteorological data, such as that provided by the NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project, can play a vital role in optimizing battery storage.
Electryone AI, a software startup in London founded in 2023, takes advantage of POWER Earth observation data for battery optimization. The technology company incorporates hourly solar irradiance and cloud data from the POWER application programming interface (API) into its artificial intelligence (AI) software to create short-term forecasts, which inform smart battery owners of the best times to charge solar batteries and optimal times to utilize or store energy. POWER’s solar irradiance data comes from NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) data product’s: SYN1deg and Fast Longwave and SHortwave Radiative Flux (FLASHFlux).
CERES provides several satellite-based observation products that help us understand Earth’s radiation budget and cloud conditions. Earth’s radiation budget refers to the balance between incoming and outgoing thermal radiation reflected back to space. One of CERES’s key data products, SYN1deg, provides global cloud and radiation data from January 2001 up to within three to four months of near real-time. FLASHFlux, another CERES data product, provides the closest real-time global estimates of daily solar (shortwave) and thermal (longwave) radiation, which is available from the point SYN1deg ends coverage three to four months earlier, up to about a week of near real-time. POWER brings these datasets together in one place, making it easier to access and apply to various workstreams. Electryone AI uses several CERES parameters, including total cloud cover, global horizontal irradiance, direct normal irradiance, and diffuse horizontal irradiance from the past three years up to real-time.
Ioannis Kasinopoulos, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Electryone AI, said as more properties were moving towards relying on solar panels and wind energy, he and his fellow co-founder and chief operations officer, Yiannis Zambas, saw a need for better optimized battery storage. NASA POWER data helped them develop and grow their software to what it is today. Electryone AI is partnered with more than 20 smart battery companies, delivering key information on how to make the most out of their batteries.
“Seamless and free access to high-quality data was very critical for us,” said Kasinopoulos. “We started as two people with very limited resources trying to figure out the new software category. Without data like POWER data, we wouldn't be able to boost our operations and figure out how to make a commercial product. We wouldn't be able to compete with large companies, especially like the large billion-dollar utilities. And right now, because of this data, we're able to build state-of-the-art strategies that are having an impact on the world.”
Although Electryone AI’s software supports batteries that power individual homes and businesses rather than directly to an electric grid, similar to the trend seen in the United States, Kasinopoulos said the batteries they monitor are increasingly being used for arbitrage. Half-hourly energy markets in the U.K. publish energy prices 24-hours in advance. Electryone AI’s software then uses this information to create a charge plan for batteries, so customers can take advantage of storing energy when prices are low and selling energy when prices are high. This trade also helps energy utility companies relieve stress on the grid.
“Based on the individual partners of the consumers, the charging decisions are being updated every five to 10 minutes. So, we have a certain confidence that the decisions we are making are going to make the maximum profit,” said Kasinopoulos.
The most common use of smart batteries, Kasinopoulos has noticed, is supplying stable energy for properties while saving on costs. One kilowatt-hour of energy can range from $0.30 when load and weather conditions are stable to more than $10, or £8, when energy is in high demand or the grid is under stress. With the help of POWER data, Electryone AI customers are on their way to becoming zero-bill homes – homes and businesses that pay no energy bill costs because they use a combination of solar or wind energy and data-informed, optimized batteries to avoid utilizing grid power at all.
With the help of POWER-informed optimization, Electryone AI helps its customers see a 300% reduction in energy costs per year compared to how much they were saving using batteries without Electryone AI. Prior to the AI software, homes would typically only save around £150 ($174) per year on energy costs with their batteries. With Electryone AI, customers were saving closer to £500, or more than $668.
With the help of POWER data, Electryone AI prioritizes making this type of major savings accessible to everyone. The company is currently involved in a project that will provide thousands of batteries optimized by Electryone AI for affordable housing designated to vulnerable families in the U.K.
“They can democratize and give back to the social housing tenants much cheaper energy without them even having to worry about buying the battery or running the battery,” said Kasinopoulos. “The battery will be part of the property just like a boiler is…Behind the scenes, making sure that the energy is cheaper for everyone.”
POWER data plays a major role in helping Electryone AI make energy more affordable and will continue do so as the company thinks ahead. The POWER project’s adoption of cutting edge back-end technology provides fast APIs so users like Kasinopoulos can directly integrate NASA data into their software and applications. NASA’s commitment to make actionable Earth data accessible to all ultimately supports companies around the world like Electryone AI break down barriers to informed energy use and savings.
“We want to be able to use all this data to make our devices aware of their energy consumption, aware of the energy cost, and make better decisions,” said Kasinopoulos. “At the end of the day, we all need energy, and we all will keep using energy.”