Google to Test Data Center Battery Backup That Also Serves the Grid

The battery is expected to come online in summer 2021. Generators sit beside data centers across the world, ready to keep them running in case of electricity outages. Currently, data centers account for about 20 gigawatts of diesel generators deployed around the globe, Google estimates (the tech company declined to quantify its share of that total). If those users switch data center backup to batteries, it could drive some storage demand. But this announcement is more about potential value creation than upside for the battery market, said Dan Finn-Foley, head of energy storage at consultancy Wood Mackenzie. “If the Googles, Microsofts and Amazons of the world are willing to pay a premium [for] cleaner backup generation, then it may well accelerate the uptake of storage by providing one more layer to drive the economics into the black,” said Dan Finn-Foley. Data center backup power for grid services: A long road to realization The push to use data center backup power systems as vessels for grid services contracts has been around for at least a decade. In 2011, Greentech Media reported on a partnership between utility Dominion and Power Assure, an energy management software startup that planned to use data […]

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