California's move to store power from the sun attracted venture capitalists and other major battery makers in a major energy race. Venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla and Peter Thiel, Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, battery maker LG Chem and General Electric Co were drawn to the initiative to capture solar energy. Last month, Governor Jerry Brown spoke to an Intersolar conference held in San Francisco and stressed, "We can't just rely on sunlight. We've got to bottle the sunlight."

The state proposed that renewable energy sources should comprise one-third of its electricity supply by 2020. Specifically, it stated that by 2020, it should be able to store 1.3 gigawatts of renewable electricity. Reuters reported that for traditional power plants, that capacity would be enough to give power to more than one million households. 

California's proposal would also impact the storage market. Analyst Steven Minnihan of Lux Research estimated that from USD 200 million worth in installations last year, the figure could grow to USD 10.4 billion in 2017 if the proposal would be implemented as a legislation.