The Energy Storage Solutions Consortium has been launched to assess the climate benefits of energy storage.

The new consortium, led by Meta (formerly Facebook), energy analytics solution provider REsurety and independent power producer Broad Reach Power, aims to develop a methodology to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions benefits of stored energy usage.

The stated intention is to provide what is expected to be the first tool for organisations to create credible progress toward their net zero emissions goals.

The tool will be third party verified by the standards organisation Verra through the Verified Carbon Standard Program, after which it will be available on an open source basis.

“At Meta, we are committed to accelerating the transition to the carbon-free grid of the future, and large-scale energy storage is a critical part of that transition,” comments Peter Freed, director of energy strategy at Meta.

“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.”

In order to calculate the greenhouse gas benefits of large-scale energy storage facilities, the Consortium will leverage locational marginal emissions, which takes account of the location of the facility as well as the time of day rather than simply its MWh value.

Thus the concept measures the tons of greenhouse gas emissions displaced through the charging and discharging of the storage facilities on the grid at a specific location and point in time.

Alongside the three steering committee members, the Consortium brings together a diverse range of organisations and companies.

Members include 3Degrees Group, Inc., Akamai Technologies, Clearloop, Equilibrium Energy, Fluence, General Motors, GlidePath Power Solutions, Habitat Energy, Hannon Armstrong, Jupiter Power, Longroad Energy, Marathon Capital, Microsoft, Primergy Solar, Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, RES Group, Rivian, Rowan Digital Infrastructure, Stem, Tabors Caramanis Rudkevich, TimberRock, UBS Asset Management, and WattTime.

The Consortium is also partnering with the German climate consultancy Perspectives Climate Group.

Earlier in the year, Meta and Broad Reach Power launched a pilot to test the role of energy storage in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The year-long pilot consists of 9.9MW storage projects at three sites in Texas to test the technology under a set of differing grid conditions.