Meta, REsurety, Broad Reach Power Launch Energy Storage Group
Several leading businesses and organisations have formed a consortium to create an open-source, third-party-verified methodology, to quantify the emissions benefits of grid-connected energy storage projects.
The Energy Storage Solutions Consortium is being launched by the likes of Meta, REsurety, Broad Reach Power, General Motors, and Microsoft. It aims to assess and maximise energy storage technologies’ greenhouse gas emissions reduction potential.
The group says, once approved by the third-party Verra through the Verified Carbon Standard Programme, the standard would be the first confirmed methodology to quantify the emissions benefits of large-scale energy storage facilities. The standard would also provide guidance, such as when to deploy stored energy to deliver the most emissions reduction benefits.
To calculate the emissions reduction benefits of the energy storage facilities, the consortium will use locational marginal emissions. This process measures the tons of greenhouse gas emissions displaced through the charging and discharging of energy storage facilities on the grid at a specific location and time.
Energy storage systems help improve reliability and resiliency with backup power that can be applied to individual areas or the entire grid, according to the Energy Storage Association. Storage can also supply the energy needs to even out and match shifts in demand.
It has become an important piece of energy resiliency, especially in high-demand situations like the recent heat wave in California that threatened grid reliability. It is also considered key to energy transitions and international net-zero targets.
A Nature report found energy storage could result in up to 57% carbon emissions reductions with little impact on renewable energy production. The Energy Information Administration forecast at the beginning of 2022 that battery storage would increase by 84% compared with 2021.
Microsoft is also part of a group advancing long-duration energy storage.
Meta, REsurety, and Broad Reach Power are the steering committee members of the consortium. The group also has several advisory committee members, including technology companies, emissions data providers, investors, storage developers, and service providers.
The Energy Storage Solutions Consortium is also partnering with the German consultancy Perspectives Climate Group, which aims to help organisations achieve net zero emissions and to develop platforms for accounting for emissions reductions.
Other members of the consortium include 3Degrees Group, Akamai Technologies, Clearloop, Equilibrium Energy, Fluence, GlidePath Power Solutions, Habitat Energy, Hannon Armstrong, Jupiter Power, Longroad Energy, Marathon Capital, Primergy Solar, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, RES Group, Rivian, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Stem, Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich, TimberRock, UBS Asset Management, and WattTime.
“Having achieved 100% renewable energy for our global operations, we are now looking to help move the energy storage industry forward by addressing next-level challenges and opening pathways that will help drive high-impact emissions reductions on the grid,” says Peter Freed, director of energy strategy at Meta.
Source: Environmental Leader
