German energy firm RWE Renewables has announced that its Hickory Park Solar project in Mitchell County, Georgia is now operational.
This project – RWE Renewables’ largest solar project in the Americas – is a 195.5-megawatt facility with a 40 MW 2-hour battery storage system, supplying power to utility Georgia Power under a 30-year power purchase agreement.
RWE Renewables Americas CEO Silvia Ortín said this project will benefit the state in several ways, including providing tax revenue to the local counties and school districts.
The project has more than 650,000 solar panels installed across an estimated 1,800 acres of land. A DC-coupled storage system has been integrated into the system to improve resilience and optimize yield.
For RWE, the U.S. accounts for more than a third of its renewables capacity.
“Projects like Hickory Park, with its co-located battery storage system, will become increasingly important as renewables form a bigger part of the energy mix. This project plays an important role in expanding our operating portfolio in the U.S., one of our focus markets,” explained Ortín.
RWE’s goal is to achieve a net installed capacity of 50 GW in 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2040.
RWE constructs, owns and operates some of the highest performing wind, solar and energy storage projects in the U.S. It has over 30 projects in operation in the country with an installed generation capacity of over 5,000 MW.
It has formed joint ventures with National Grid Ventures and New England Aqua Ventus for area OCS-A 0539 with 3 GW of potential capacity and a floating offshore wind project in Maine, respectively.
