Google-Backed Pilot Demonstrates Hourly Carbon Accounting for US BESS

A pilot project backed by Google has demonstrated hourly carbon accounting for US battery energy storage systems (BESS) using granular certificates.

The challenge of accurately representing BESS in carbon accounting lies in the fact that renewable matching is typically measured against annual targets, while the value of storage is inherently hourly.

To address this issue, Google contracted with battery operators to time-shift environmental attributes it already owned without assuming any merchant or dispatch risk.

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.

Over the pilot period, the batteries charged and discharged a total of 9.2GWh during the respective windows, with each hour verified by Quintrace against the EnergyTag standard.