REM: Germany’s RWE Group ramps up foothold in US renewables market

RWE Group of Germany is continuing its entry into the US renewable energy market. The company’s 125-MW Cassadaga wind project in Chautauqua County, New York has been commissioned. The Essen-based company’s US subsidiary has also teamed up with Constellation on a 200-MW solar facility coupled with an 80-MW/120-MWh battery storage system in Bastrop County, Texas.

The Cassadaga project comprises 27 x Nordex Acciona wind turbines and 10 by Siemens Gamesa and has the capacity to provide clean energy for more than 37,000 households.

The news highlights RWE’s globalisation strategy. The US accounts for more than one third of RWE Group’s renewables capacity, playing a key role in RWE’s strategy to grow its renewables business and get to net zero by 2040, the company says.

RWE has significant experience in the US onshore market with 29 renewable energy projects in operation and several under construction, including the Hickory Park solar project with co-located storage, and the Blackjack Creek onshore wind farm in South Texas.

RWE has also entered a joint venture, New England Aqua Ventus, for a small floating offshore wind project in the state of Maine. Additionally, RWE recently joined in a partnership with National Grid Ventures – a subsidiary of the UK’s National Grid, which has a significant footprint in New England – to explore opportunities in the US offshore wind market. They will jointly bid in the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s upcoming New York Bight seabed lease auction.

In Asia RWE is making waves too. It will partner with Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power to explore the prospect of large-scale floating offshore wind projects off Japan.

Meanwhile, RWE Renewables has signed a solar deal in Texas with utility Constellation, owned by Exelon. Constellation will purchase power and project-specific renewable energy certificates equal to a 140-MW section of the total 200-MW capacity of RWE’s Big Star solar project.

Separately, Constellation has equivalent long-term agreements in place for the project to help power the Texas operations of PepsiCo, McCormick & Company, Best Buy and Viacom CBS’ KTVT and KTXA TV stations with renewable energy. The facility is currently under development and is anticipated to reach commercial operation in the second quarter of 2022, said RWE.