RWE breaks ground on 900MWh of ERCOT BESS

LinkedIn
Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email

German energy company RWE said yesterday (2 October) it has broken ground on three battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Texas, US, totalling 900MWh.

The three projects are Crowned Heron 1 and Crowned Heron 2, both 150MW/300MWh projects located in Fort Bend County, and Cartwheel 1, another 150MW/300MWh project located in Sulphur Springs. The projects will aid RWE’s global BESS goal of having 6GW by 2030.

Crowned Heron 1 and Cartwheel 1 are expected to be completed in the summer of 2025, whereas Crowned Heron 2 will enter its commissioning phase in the fall of 2025.

RWE said the projects will provide stability to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis

Not ready to commit yet?
  • Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
  • In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
  • Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal
  • Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual

Or continue reading this article for free

Hanson Wood, head of development, utility-scale renewables for RWE Clean Energy, said the projects mark a “significant step” in RWE’s commitment to bolstering energy infrastructure in ERCOT.

“When completed and operating, our Crowned Heron 1 and 2 and Cartwheel battery projects will serve as reliable energy storage solutions to enhance grid stability and support the state’s rapidly growing renewables sector,” Wood added.

RWE continues to expand its presence in the US market and, earlier this year (May), secured 599MW of solar and storage projects in the states of New York, Idaho, and Oregon.

The largest of the sites is the 300MWac Cedar Ridge solar PV project in Blaine County, Idaho, co-located with a 150MW/600MWh four-hour duration BESS. This asset is located within the PacifiCorp region and will “provide regional grid support consistent with PacifiCorp’s resource planning forecasts”, RWE said.

In February, RWE completed construction of three BESS projects in Texas and Arizona, representing 190MW/360MWh. All three are co-located with solar PV projects.

Bright Arrow is a 100MW/200MWh BESS and 300MWac PV project in Sulphur Springs, while Big Star is an 80MW/120MWh system paired with a 200MW PV project in Bastrop County, both in Texas. In Arizona, it has brought online the 10/40MWh BESS, 52.5MWac PV Mesquite 4 project.

ERCOT installs 1,200MWh of BESS in Q2 2024

The ERCOT market continues to see large-scale BESS projects developed, with Modo Energy telling Energy-Storage.news that it had reached 5GW of large-scale BESS online by early summer this year.

ERCOT installed 20% of all grid-scale capacity in the US in Q2 2024, totalling 1,200MWh, according to the newest edition of Wood Mackenzie’s US quarterly US Energy Storage Monitor report.

When factoring in Arizona (2,600MWh) and California (4,492MWh), the three states account for 85% of grid-scale deployments in terms of capacity in Q2 2024. It is worth noting that Texas BESS projects are often co-located with solar PV and have a duration of 1-hour and 2-hours.

Last month, Energy-Storage.News Premium reported that ERCOT approved an additional 480MW of BESS capacity for commercial operations in August. Three new storage projects were connected to the grid in the first half of August and were available for dispatch by ERCOT on August 20. During that day, the Texas grid operator exceeded its peak demand record without needing to implement conservation measures.

11 November 2025
San Diego, USA
The 2024 Summit included innovative new features including a ‘Crash Course in Battery Asset Management’, Ask-Me-Anything formats and debate-style sessions. You can expect to meet and network with all the key industry players again in 2025 from major US asset owners, operators, RTOs and ISOs, optimizers, software and analytics providers, technical consultancies, O&M technology providers and more.

Read Next

August 29, 2025
The Australian government has opened two CIS tenders in Western Australia, targeting 2.4GWh of energy storage and 1.6GW of renewables.
August 29, 2025
Potentia Energy, a joint venture co-owned by Enel Green Power and INPEX, has secured the first environmental approval for a grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) under South Australia’s new Hydrogen and Renewable Energy (HRE) Act.
August 29, 2025
French independent power producer (IPP) Neoen, which is now fully owned by Canadian investment firm Brookfield, has switched on the second phase of its 560MW/2,240MWh Collie BESS in Western Australia.
Premium
August 28, 2025
Energy-Storage.news Premium speaks with Sergio Melendez, storage sector manager at CAISO, and Ali Karimian, market optimisation director at GridBeyond, about regulating Bid Cost Recovery Payments in the California Independent System Operator market.
August 28, 2025
California utility Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) has pushed back recommissioning of the Elkhorn battery energy storage system (BESS) by approximately one year, to 30 June 2026.

Most Popular

Email Newsletter