RWE contracts for 30-year-long solar power supply to USA

• Last Wednesday, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk stated concluding a 30-year-long purchase agreement to supply solar power generated at the 195MW Broken Spoke solar station to Georgia Power.

Contracts of the kind are meant to ensure preventing power prices fall for the operator through a fixed purchase price for customers. They have been popular throughout USA as well as southern and northern Europe for quite a while. 

Such deals are gaining popularity among wholesale markets, customers as well as project companies in the rest of the world intended to make use of purchase agreement experience to stimulate renewables growth. 

The Broken Spoke project will be supplemented with a 40-megawatt two-hour storage unit. The power supply to Georgia Power (which is the biggest subsidiary of United States-based gas and electricity utility Southern Company) is scheduled to start in 2021, according to the companies’ joint press statement. 

Financial details have not been announced, which is a normal practice for PPAs. 

“This integrated solar plus storage facility will increase energy delivery during peak demand times and simplify integration of locally produced energy into the Georgia Power grid,” according to RWE. 

The Essen-based utility giant is stepping aside from its traditional coal-fired power plants and is turning into one of the leading renewable suppliers worldwide. 

It is intended to invest an annual amount of 1.5b euros in net capex into the sector. 

Project cooperation has the prospect to raise total yearly investment amount to 2 up to 3b euros. 

In the United States, it has created renewable facilities with total capacity of 3.3 gigawatts, at the same time announcing 1.4 gigawatts in the process of construction and a number of major projects under development.