New Research Adds to the Picture on BESS and Property Values

Questions about property values are commonly raised with the introduction of new infrastructure projects, including battery energy storage systems (BESS). Understanding how development impacts home prices is a legitimate topic of discussion, but concerns often do not align with the data and there's new research that speaks to what communities with operating BESS facilities might expect.

A 2025 study from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania looked at 178 utility-scale BESS projects across California, Massachusetts, and New York. The study found that homes near an operational BESS project don't experience significant price changes compared to homes farther away.

A separate analysis by Integra Realty Resources released this week, looked at 400 homes surrounding 20 existing utility-scale BESS projects across the United States and found that those homes appreciated at effectively the same rate as their broader local markets over a five-year period.

Neither study is the last word, and every community is different. But the data that exists so far doesn't support the idea that BESS projects drag down surrounding home values.

There's also something telling about what both studies could not include – analysis of specific BESS projects in Washington state. That’s not because researchers overlooked us, but because we do not yet have any operating utility-scale facilities. That gap is an illustration of Washington’s standing as the slowest state in the country to adopt clean energy, despite the laws and commitments that are in place. If we continue falling short on building the infrastructure our grid needs, the clean energy transition here will continue to stall. BESS projects like Cascadia Ridge are an opportunity to start changing that.