Google Tests Battery Storage for Time-Shifting Renewable Energy Credits

Google and battery storage developer esVolta have completed a three-month pilot testing a new commercial structure for storing surplus solar power. The project, which also involved clean-energy platforms Quintrace and LevelTen Energy, released stored power, along with hourly-verified renewable energy credits, during hours when Google's electricity demand outpaced its renewable supply.

The pilot, sponsored by Google, aimed to test whether battery storage can be used to 'time-shift' renewable electricity and its associated environmental attributes. EsVolta charged its batteries with surplus solar generation during other hours and discharged that stored electricity, along with associated renewable energy credits, into the identified gap periods.

The companies described the arrangement as the first publicly detailed commercial structure in which a corporate buyer contracts specifically to time-shift environmental attributes it already owns through battery storage. The pilot shifted a combined 9.2 GWh of solar-charged electricity through two of esVolta's US battery energy storage systems.