RWE Powers On 200 MW Stoneridge Solar and 100 MW BESS in Texas
- Energy Storage News Solar + Storage Integration
Marin Holt
- 2
- 5 minutes read
- 200 MW solar + 100 MW/200 MWh BESS commissioned Nov 26, 2025, Milam County TX
- Amazon PPA all output; High Road Clean Energy operates for RWE
- 2-hour BESS dispatches into ERCOT evening peak after solar ramp-down
- Brings RWE Texas capacity to >4.8 GW; one of 11 US projects in 2025
- 200+ construction jobs; Milam County and Thorndale ISD tax revenue
RWE commissioned Stoneridge Solar on November 26, 2025, in Milam County, Texas, a 200 MW photovoltaic array co-located with a 100 MW / 200 MWh Battery energy storage system. Amazon.com contracted all output under a power purchase agreement, adding Stoneridge to its growing portfolio of direct renewable energy agreements in Texas.
Critical Perspective
The 200 MWh project adds capacity to a grid increasingly dependent on short-duration storage to mask intermittency gaps. Four-hour duration assets like this one cover evening ramps but not multi-day weather events , the 2021 Texas freeze exposed that gap at scale. Comparable BESS installations have achieved sixty to seventy-five percent of projected dispatch revenue in year one before market learning closes the spread. What happens to the revenue stack if the host utility restructures its demand response tariff before the project reaches its third operating year?
What Is Being Built
Stoneridge Solar occupies east-central Milam County within ERCOT’s interconnect, near the town of Thorndale. High Road Clean Energy operates the facility on behalf of RWE. The photovoltaic array uses horizontal single-axis trackers to maximize annual generation. The co-located BESS provides two hours of storage at full output, 200 MWh total, dispatching after solar ramp-down each evening into ERCOT’s peak market window.
Construction employed more than 200 workers and generates tax revenue for Milam County and the Thorndale Independent School District. RWE partnered locally throughout the project, including community agreements with Thorndale’s volunteer fire department and funding for elementary school renovation.
Why It Matters
Stoneridge Solar brings RWE’s operating renewable capacity in Texas to more than 4.8 GW, roughly half of the company’s 11 GW U.S. portfolio. It is one of 11 projects RWE commissioned in the United States during 2025, contributing to 2 GW of new operational capacity added that year. The company has 4 GW more under construction in the U.S.
The Amazon PPA delivers long-term revenue certainty for Stoneridge’s generation and storage output. Amazon signed multiple direct renewable energy contracts across Texas and the Southeast in 2024 and 2025 as part of its hourly carbon-matching commitment. The two-hour BESS co-location allows the project to shift afternoon solar generation into peak evening hours, improving PPA utilization rates and reducing merchant price exposure.
ERCOT added more than 12 GW of new solar and storage capacity during 2025. Co-located solar-plus-storage projects like Stoneridge have become the standard configuration for large PPAs in Texas because the battery’s ability to dispatch after sunset solves the dispatchability problem created by solar’s afternoon-only generation profile, making the combined plant more valuable to Amazon than solar alone.
