RWE, a leading renewable energy company, is driving forward the growth of its 8 GW renewable energy portfolio with Texas Waves II, a 30-MW (30 MWh) capacity battery energy storage project co-located at the Pyron Wind Farm in Scurry County, Texas.
RWE is significantly increasing its standalone and co-located battery storage project pipeline as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides long-term, stable support to the energy storage market. Currently, RWE Clean Energy has approximately 2.5 GWh of U.S. battery storage projects in an execution stage from coast to coast with more and larger projects coming soon.
"This new battery storage system helps us make progress against our Growing Green Strategy to achieve net-zero by 2040 goal, while providing a rapid and flexible response asset to the Texas power grid," said Mark Noyes, CEO of RWE Clean Energy, a subsidiary of RWE AG. “As this summer’s heat drives all-time energy demand records in Texas, renewable energy, including battery energy storage, is contributing to relieving stress on the grid.”
Storage projects, like Texas Waves II, can provide capacity and flexibility to the electric grid available to quickly discharge energy when demand outstrips supply. This is particularly important for the Texas grid this summer as data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator, showed power usage hit an hourly record of more than 80.8 GW on June 27.
The project provides ancillary services to the ERCOT grid as well as participates in the energy market. In addition, Texas Waves II has the potential to reduce electricity costs for consumers by storing energy when it is readily available from renewable resources and discharging that energy when it would otherwise have to be provided from more costly sources of power generation.
Texas Waves II builds on RWE’s pioneering position in an attractive storage market as the next phase of a series of energy storage projects. The company is able to match storage facilities where they add the most value to the existing RWE wind fleet. Texas Waves I, one of the first utility-scale battery energy storage projects (2x9.9-MW) started back in 2017, is co-located with RWE’s Pyron and Inadale Wind Farms in the same area.
For more information, visit rwecleanenergy.com.
