Base Power has raised $1 billion to scale a large home battery designed to do more than keep houses running during outages. Its new Base Core stores electricity at homes and can feed power back to the grid when needed.
The Austin-based company said the Series D financing values it at $13 billion after the investment. Production has started at its first Austin factory, where Base says it is already making thousands of battery systems each month.
Core comes in 39.2 kWh and 78.4 kWh versions, among the larger home batteries available. It is designed to be installed quickly, switch to backup power automatically, and operate through extreme weather.
The bigger idea is to turn thousands of those systems into a distributed power resource. Instead of waiting years for large power plants, Base can place storage close to where electricity is used. When the grid needs extra capacity, connected batteries can supply stored power; homeowners still get backup during outages.
"It installs in under an hour, switches over seamlessly, is built to handle extreme weather, and delivers extended outage protection," said Zach Dell, CEO and co-founder of Base Power.
Base says its battery fleet has grown to more than 500 MWh over the past year. It has expanded from Texas into Illinois and signed utility partnerships with El Paso Electric, Austin Energy, and CoServ covering more than 200 MW of capacity, a network that can potentially operate as a distributed energy resource rather than as isolated backup systems.
The $1 billion round will help Base reach more homes, expand nationally, and hire more employees. The company has raised more than $2.5 billion in capital to date.
For the grid, the point is less the size of one household battery than what happens when thousands are connected: local backup, plus flexible storage for the wider electricity system.