Google will provide funding for a portion of long-duration energy storage projects developed for the Salt River Project’s electric grid, as part of a research partnership announced Monday by the utility and tech giant.
“We believe that long duration energy storage will play an essential role in meeting SRP’s sustainability goals and ensuring grid reliability,” Chico Hunter, SRP manager of innovation and development, said in a statement. The collaboration with Google “will bring additional insight into the viability of these new technologies that could move them to maturity more quickly.”
SRP and Google said each of their organizations have “ambitious sustainability goals” that can benefit from the collaboration. The public utility has committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and Google is working toward operating its global data centers and offices on 24/7 carbon-free energy, as well as achieving net zero emissions across its operations and value chain.
Storage capable of delivering energy across longer durations has the potential to help stabilize stressed grids, providing flexibility and reliability in a future decarbonized power system, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2021, the agency established a long duration storage challenge aiming to achieve 90% cost reductions by 2030 for technologies that can provide 10+ hours duration of energy storage.
“Long duration energy storage is a key technology in the portfolio of advanced energy solutions that we want to bring to market faster,” said Lucia Tian, head of advanced energy technologies at Google.
SRP issued requests for proposals in 2022 and 2024 for long-duration energy storage demonstration projects and said it “will explore with Google the inclusion of multiple projects in the research collaboration.” The utility already has almost 1,300 MW of energy storage supporting its system, including 1,100 MW of battery storage at eight facilities, and 200 MW of pumped hydro storage.
The two parties noted they have previously worked together.
Three solar+storage projects, including the Sonoran Solar Energy Center, with 260 MW of solar and a 1 GWh battery energy storage system, already support Google’s planned development, the partners said. “Google’s current projections indicate these projects will help its Arizona operations reach at least 80% [carbon free energy] on an hourly basis by 2026,” they said.
