RWE and Meta have announced a new power purchase agreement (PPA) for the offtake from RWE’s 200MW Waterloo solar project in Bastrop County in the US state of Texas.
Meta will purchase 100% of the power produced by the project.
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The PPA is RWE’s third long-term contract with Meta in recent months, with a combined offtake of 574MW from projects in Texas, Illinois and Louisiana.
RWE previously secured two PPAs with Meta for the County Run solar project in Illinois (274MW) and the Lafitte solar project in Louisiana (100MW).
The Waterloo Solar project is set to begin onsite construction in late 2025 and aligns with Meta’s goal of using 100% clean and renewable energy.
The project will employ 300 full-time workers at peak construction.
RWE Clean Energy chief commercial officer Christoph Hunfeld stated: “RWE’s partnership with Meta underscores the importance of unleashing American electricity generation from all sources to support load growth in Texas and across the US.
“These collaborations enable us to continue investing in communities across America like Bastrop County, helping to stimulate job creation and economic prosperity, while simultaneously helping companies like Meta match the electricity use of their operations with clean and renewable energy.”
RWE’s investment during the project’s construction phase will generate an estimated $26m in new local economic activity in Bastrop County.
It will provide $2m per year to the local economy and $49m in cumulative tax revenue over 40 years.
Meta head of global energy Urvi Parekh stated: “We’re excited to expand our partnership with RWE and look forward to the Waterloo solar project coming online.”
In a related development, GE Vernova has signed an agreement with RWE to supply 109 onshore wind turbines for the Honey Mesquite wind farm in Glasscock County, Texas, and to repower the Forest Creek wind farm near Big Spring, Texas.
The Forest Creek deal was booked in the second quarter (Q2) of 2024, and the Honey Mesquite order in Q3 2024. The wind farms will use the 2.8MW–127m turbine, with deliveries commencing in 2025.
The projects will increase RWE’s rebuilt and repowered wind capacity in the US to more than 1GW.
RWE estimates that the wind farms will support hundreds of full-time jobs during peak construction and generate enough electricity to power more than 85,000 homes and businesses annually in Texas.
The projects also support several hundred long-term,advanced manufacturing jobs at GE Vernova’s Pensacola facility.
RWE recently entered a ten-year power PPA with Telehouse to supply renewable energy to Telehouse’s London Docklands campus until the end of 2035.
