RWE signs up corporate offtaker for Big Star Texas solar-plus-storage project

RWE Renewables has secured an offtake agreement with energy supplier Constellation for a large-scale solar-plus-storage project currently being developed in Texas.
Exelon subsidiary Constellation will purchase power and project-specific renewable energy certificates (RECs) equal to a 140MW section of the Big Star project, which will feature 200MW of solar paired with an 80MW / 120MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
Separately, Constellation has equivalent long-term agreements in place to help power the Texas operations of four commercial customers, which will receive energy and RECs from the Big Star project.
Currently under development in Bastrop County, Big Star is expected to reach commercial operation in the second quarter of 2022.
The deal comes after RWE Renewables, the renewables subsidiary of German utility RWE, secured a deal earlier this year to supply 110MW of solar from a project planned for Tennessee. RWE Renewables also completed its first grid-scale battery storage project in Europe earlier this year, inaugurating the standalone 8.5MWh Stephenstown BESS (pictured above) in Ireland in April.
That month, the company also contracted W?rtsil? Energy to supply BESS equipment to Hickory Park, a DC-coupled solar-plus-storage project in the US state of Georgia pairing 200MW of PV with a 40MW / 80MWh battery system. A 30-year power purchase agreement (PPA) is in place for Hickory Park with utility Georgia Power.