Despite the potential of a battery energy storage system (BESS) to electrical grids, most standalone use of BESS is not economical due to its high upfront cost and batteries' limited lifespan. Energy stacking, a strategy providing multiple services simultaneously, has been of great interest to improve profitability. However, some key questions remain unanswered. We show that there exists cost-saving synergy, which enables stacking to double the profit of the best standalone service.

Solar power has risen as a sustainable & inexpensive option, but its generation is variable during the day and non-existent at night. Thanks to recent technological advances, a combination of solar+storage holds the promise of cheaper, greener, and more reliable off-grid power. Our work sheds light on this question by developing a model of strategic capacity investment in renewable generation and storage to match demand with supply in off-grid use-cases, while relying on fossil fuel as backup.

We examine whether and how renewable energy adoption affects energy efficiency (EE) improvement. Using site-level data from an industrial conglomerate, we find that using renewables to meet 10% more of a site's energy demand led to an additional 2.0% improvement in EE. This effect is heterogeneous in sourcing strategy where outside purchases led to gains, but on-site generation had no effect. Analysis of the mechanism suggests greater managerial focus on EE due to the costs of outside purchases.