|
|
|
|
|
Companies Report Results From Google-Sponsored Battery Storage-Shift Pilot, Allow Hourly Tracking, Matching Of Renewable Energy Allocation To Battery Charging & Later Dispatch
The following story is brought free of charge to readers by VertexOne, the exclusive EDI provider of EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Quintrace, esVolta, and LevelTen Energy today announced the results of a battery storage pilot, sponsored by Google, "that shows how batteries can capture surplus renewable energy and deliver it to the hours with greater fossil generation, opening up the first environmental revenue stream for battery assets."
"Using hourly, time-stamped Granular Certificates (GCs), the pilot allocated solar energy to grid-connected batteries and shifted it to hours when Google's energy consumption exceeded its renewable supply, introducing a forward-looking commercial structure to incentivize battery dispatch to improve carbon-free energy matching," the companies said
Over the pilot period, the batteries charged with renewable energy during a defined mid-day charging window and discharged during a defined evening window, with each hour verified by Quintrace against the EnergyTag standard, the companies said
Across the 3-month pilot, the batteries charged and discharged a total of 9.2 GWh during the respective windows, enabling renewable energy to be shifted across the hours, the companies said
"This pilot shows storage can be reliably dispatched and credited to match clean energy to demand on a granular hourly basis, and that will shape those strategies and attract further investment into storage," said Devin Hardman, Chief Commercial Officer, esVolta
"Energy storage has long been difficult to represent in carbon accounting: renewable matching has traditionally been measured against annual targets, while the value of storage is inherently hourly. However, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is beginning to require hourly reporting for large energy users, and the GHG Protocol is currently evaluating how to address this issue. As those frameworks take hold, the ability of storage to move clean energy across hours becomes central to credible decarbonization," the companies said
"The pilot was designed as a demonstration of feasibility, proving out two things at once: a commercial pathway that gives battery operators a new, carbon-based revenue stream, and a tracking pathway that accurately accounts for and retires the hourly certificates behind it. Ahead of the pilot, Google contracted for defined daily charging and discharging windows based on forecasted gaps in carbon-free energy generation, and the operators dispatched their batteries in line with those guidelines," the companies said
"The agreements had a distinctive structure: Google contracted with the battery operators to time-shift environmental attributes it already owned, without tolling the batteries or assuming any merchant or dispatch risk. This structure left the operator in full control of their assets, including pre-defined flexibility to pursue energy price signals and to respond to grid emergencies," the companies said
esVolta contributed its Anole project (240 MW / 480 MWh) and Burksol project (100 MW / 200 MWh), operating as an independent utility-scale battery developer and operator. Quintrace provided the software platform used to implement the verification, and LevelTen managed the registry accounts to ensure no double-counting, and provided the transaction framework for the storage-shift agreements, the companies said
"The pilot's results rest on verification built specifically for storage. Quintrace's software follows renewable energy from the moment it charges a battery to the moment it is sent back to the grid, and its dynamic loss calculations ensure the clean energy claimed is only the clean energy actually delivered. It can also apply different accounting approaches to fit each agreement structure between battery operator and buyer. The result is a clear, trustworthy record of how much clean energy was shifted and when, meeting recognized standards such as EnergyTag," the companies said
"One of the most exciting parts of this pilot was introducing a new price signal and contracting structure to the utility-scale storage market. When delivered at scale, this can support the financing and construction of more batteries and provide operators an incentive to dispatch for the environmental outcomes their customers are asking for, not just the ones that energy markets pay for today," said Jason Tundermann, Chief Innovation Officer, LevelTen Energy
ADVERTISEMENT Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com. Unauthorized copying, retransmission, or republication
prohibited. You are not permitted to copy any work or text of EnergyChoiceMatters.com without the separate and express written consent of EnergyChoiceMatters.com
September 17, 2026
Email This Story
Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com:
• NEW -- Enrollment & Rate Management Director - Retail Supplier
• NEW -- Strategic Sales Channels Manager - Retail Supplier
• NEW -- Controller - Retail Provider
• NEW -- Manager, Product I - VXRetail (Retail Energy)
• Refreshed 5/27/26 -- Manager, ISO Coordination (electricity), Retail Supplier
|
|
|
|
|