Battery Storage-Shift Pilot Demonstrates How Hourly Renewable Certificates Can Power the Next Phase of Corporate Clean-Energy Goals

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.

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 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 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.

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. Over the pilot period, the batteries charged with renewable energy during the defined mid-day charging window and discharged during the defined evening window, with each hour verified by Quintrace against the EnergyTag standard.

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 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.

"Storage has never had a credible, hour-by-hour way to prove the clean energy it delivers, and that is the gap Quintrace was built to close. By tracing renewable energy through the battery and accounting for losses, we can verify exactly what was time-shifted and when, to standards such as EnergyTag. That is what turns storage into a measurable part of a company's clean-energy footprint."
—Scott Burns, SVP, Commercial and Product, Quintrace

For battery operators, the result points to a new role for storage in how companies build their clean-energy strategies.

"Batteries are set to play an important role in how companies shape their sustainable energy strategies, not only in how the grid is balanced. 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."
— Devin Hardman, Chief Commercial Officer, esVolta

The pilot also offers a template for how these transactions could be standardized and scaled.

"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."
— Jason Tundermann, Chief Innovation Officer, LevelTen Energy

About the participants

Quintrace 

Quintrace provides measurement, verification, and reporting for granular, hourly clean-energy accounting. Its platform tracks renewable energy as it moves through an energy storage asset and calculates and applies dynamic losses, so that those losses are accurately attributed to the energy charged into a battery. Quintrace supports multiple allocation methods, allowing verification to reflect a range of use cases and to mirror the specific agreement between a battery operator and an offtaker, and to adhere to high-quality standards such as EnergyTag. Quintrace is part of Quinbrook.

esVolta 

Founded in 2017, esVolta, LP is a leading developer, owner, and operator of utility-scale energy storage projects across the US. The company's portfolio of operational and in-construction storage capacity is approximately 2.0 GWh, supplying both utilities and corporate offtakers. The firm has over 30 GWh of future storage projects in its pipeline. esVolta is a portfolio company of Generate Capital, a leading sustainable infrastructure investment platform that partners with more than 50 leading technology providers and developers to build, finance, own, and operate sustainable infrastructure for the long term. Additional information about esVolta is available at www.esvolta.com.

LevelTen Energy

Founded in 2016, LevelTen Energy is the industry's largest clean energy deal platform. LevelTen connects utility-scale energy buyers and sellers, and helps them find, analyze, and close deals faster. Through its transaction infrastructure, which comprises the world's largest clean energy marketplace, cutting-edge transaction tools, and the industry's most trusted market intelligence suite, LevelTen delivers efficient deals and gigawatts of clean energy to the grid. Operating across 35+ markets in North America and Europe, the LevelTen Marketplace supports a full range of transaction types, including power purchase agreements, capacity, energy attribute certificates, energy storage agreements, and granular certificates. LevelTen's market intelligence software and reports bring unmatched transparency to energy markets. Learn more at leveltenenergy.com.

Media contacts

Roselle Kingsbury
(909) 529-0581
[email protected]

Quintrace: [email protected]
esVolta: [email protected]
LevelTen Energy: [email protected]

SOURCE esVolta