As a backup power solution for a company's data center, Google is investing in power storage. "From climate change issues to key components of a carbon-free system," this project is described as the first step in changing the data center.
The Google data center in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium is the search engine and web services giant’s first plant to increase on-site solar power generation. In 2017, the center added a 2.8MW solar array to supplement various other energy-saving measures already taken.
Currently, the company is working to use battery energy storage solutions to replace diesel generators that provide backup power to maintain facility operations when the grid is out of power. This week, Google’s global data center vice president Joe Kava posted on the corporate blog that the purpose of this is to prove that the battery is a “better and cleaner solution” and that the battery has now “developed enough to keep the Internet running. degree."
Kava emphasized in the article that Google recognizes that batteries can play an important role for more than this one. Backup generators are rarely called, so they are idle most of the time. However, "the battery is a versatile team member" when the battery as a backup solution is not used, it can also be used to consolidate the local power grid.
Maud Texier, a colleague of Kava and head of Google's carbon-free energy business, told the industry professional publication "Data Center Knowledge" that this project has three purposes: to show that batteries are a viable alternative to backup generators; to show how battery energy storage is. Balance the grid; try to integrate battery energy storage into Google's global infrastructure project portfolio.
Although Google has achieved carbon neutrality since 2007, the company has been committed to achieving the more ambitious goal of all-weather carbon-free electricity for data centers by 2030. Maud Texier told Data Center Knowledge that the Belgian project solution provider is a well-known head energy storage integrator in the industry, but she declined to disclose the name of the manufacturer.
Joe Kava wrote in the article that Google estimates that data centers worldwide have more than 20GW of diesel generators and described it as "a huge opportunity to develop cleaner solutions." Google is working with Belgian high-voltage transmission system operator Elia on the Saint-Ghislain project, and will "work hard to make our project a model of how data centers can become the backbone of a carbon-free grid."
Although the participation of big-name companies like Google may expand the audience of this concept, it is not a new concept. In an article written for the website in 2018, Emiliano Cevinini, vice president of industrial and commercial solutions at Vertiv, an uninterruptible power supply system (UPS) supplier, explained how to effectively use the combination of renewable energy and battery energy storage. The combination is not only a source of power for the data center, but also benefits the local grid and the environment, and at the same time creates benefits for customers. Earlier this year, RWE, a large European utility company, began marketing a data center technology solution that uses batteries for UPS applications and also uses batteries as an asset to balance the grid.
A slightly futuristic example is an agreement recently signed by liquid metal battery startup Ambri. According to the agreement, the company's technology will be combined with a 500MW renewable energy power generation project to provide all power for a large new data center complex in Nevada.
Earlier this year, Google and the utility company NV Energy signed an agreement to provide all power to a new data center also located in Nevada, the data center has a 350MW solar power station and a 250-280MW battery energy storage system.
