Google-backed Texas battery pilot boosts hourly carbon matching

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes · Last updated: 22 September 2026

A Google-backed battery storage pilot in Texas tested whether grid-scale batteries can store surplus renewable energy and dispatch it at hours when a data center’s demand would otherwise rely on fossil generation. Quintrace, esVolta and LevelTen Energy ran the three-month test and report the batteries charged and discharged 9.2GWh while using hourly time-stamped Granular Certificates to shift environmental attributes. esVolta placed two utility-scale assets into the exercise — the Anole project (240MW/480MWh) in Seagoville and the Burksol project (100MW/200MWh) in Dickens County — while Quintrace provided the verification software and LevelTen managed registry accounts to avoid double-counting.

What the Texas pilot did and what it measured

The pilot aimed to test a commercial and accounting pathway for using batteries to improve the hourly match between clean energy and a large buyer’s load. Over a three-month run, the partners report the assets charged and discharged a combined 9.2GWh while exchanging hourly environmental attributes. The experiment used time-stamped Granular Certificates to tag specific hours of solar production, then allotted those attributes to grid-connected batteries so they could be retired when the batteries discharged into hours of higher fossil generation.

Google entered contracts with the battery operators to shift when environmental attributes were assigned for energy the company already owned, as first reported by Data Center Dynamics; the arrangements did not transfer ownership of the storage assets to Google, and Google did not take on merchant or dispatch risk. The operators retained full operational control and could still respond to price signals and grid emergencies while participating in the attribute-shift structure.

Assets and participants in the trial

esVolta supplied two named utility-scale projects to the exercise: the Anole project, listed at 240MW/480MWh and located in Seagoville, Texas, and the Burksol project, listed at 100MW/200MWh in Dickens County, Texas. Quintrace supplied the software that verified hourly attributes, and LevelTen Energy managed registry accounts and established the transaction processes for the storage-shift agreements.

The partners present a separation of roles designed to protect operators’ commercial flexibility: asset owners remained free to dispatch for market prices and grid needs, while the verification and registry layers ensured the hourly environmental attributes that Google wanted to retire were tracked and prevented from being double-counted.

How the accounting and contracting worked

The pilot paired a technical dispatch outcome with an accounting stream. Granular Certificates were time-stamped to specific production hours; when batteries charged from that tagged energy and later discharged in a different hour, the certificate for the original hour was retired and the buyer received the environmental attribute for the hour it needed. LevelTen’s registry controls prevented the same hourly attribute being claimed more than once.

Partners framed the structure as a new commercial revenue source for storage: by creating an environmental price signal distinct from existing energy-market payments, the model is pitched to attract financing and reward dispatch that improves a buyer’s hour-by-hour clean-energy match rather than only responding to energy prices.

Quotes, precedent and where this fits in Google’s activity

Devin Hardman, chief commercial officer at esVolta, said: "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." That sentence is presented verbatim from the partners’ release.

Jason Tundermann, chief innovation officer at LevelTen Energy, added that the pilot introduced "a new price signal and contracting structure to the utility-scale storage market," and argued that at scale this could support financing and construction of more batteries. The partners also note Google has been active in other storage areas, most recently partnering with Energy Dome on a 23MW project in Rhode, Ireland.

What could move this either way

The bottom line

The Texas pilot demonstrates a practical way to link battery dispatch with an hourly environmental-accounting mechanism. By combining time-stamped Granular Certificates, registry controls and a contracting structure that leaves operators in control, the partners say the model can create an environmental revenue stream for storage while improving a buyer’s hour-by-hour clean-energy match. Whether that revenue stream scales depends on corporate demand for hourly attributes, registry interoperability, and whether market or regulatory frameworks formally recognise hourly retirement in corporate reporting and compliance.

What to watch

• Watch whether major corporate buyers formally adopt hourly Granular Certificates for reporting; no date has been set.
• Watch for registry or market rule changes that recognise hourly attribute retirement for compliance or voluntary reporting; no date has been set.
• Watch announcements from storage developers about financing driven by environmental attribute revenues at scale; no date has been set.