RWE secures Google offtake for Oklahoma solar

RWE has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with Google covering the entire output of the 155MWac Crooked Creek Solar project in McCurtain County, Oklahoma.

The project is RWE’s first solar development in the state. On-site construction is scheduled to begin later in 2026, with commercial operation planned for 2028 and generation delivered into the Southwest Power Pool market.

Google will use the agreement to support its operations within the SPP region. The arrangement provides RWE with a long-term corporate offtaker while adding new generation to a market experiencing rising demand from data centres, industrial activity, and wider electrification.

The contract does not mean individual electrons from Crooked Creek will be routed directly to a particular Google facility. The solar farm will inject electricity into the regional network, while the PPA provides the commercial link between the project’s production and Google’s regional electricity requirements.

Corporate demand supports project delivery

A long-term offtake agreement can reduce a generator’s exposure to wholesale-price volatility and improve the revenue certainty used by lenders and investment committees. Its final value depends on pricing, settlement structure, credit provisions, curtailment terms, shape risk, and treatment of environmental attributes, none of which were disclosed.

For Google, the agreement secures a contractual position against new generation rather than relying only on existing market supply. Large technology companies increasingly use PPAs to support electricity procurement as their infrastructure expands, although matching annual contracted output does not remove the hourly difference between solar production and continuous data-centre demand.

Crooked Creek will generate during daylight hours and according to weather conditions. Google’s operations require power around the clock, meaning the wider SPP system must continue balancing solar output with other generation, storage, demand response, and transmission capacity.

The project therefore adds energy to the regional portfolio without becoming a standalone supply solution for a 24-hour load. Its operational value will be influenced by when it generates, congestion around its connection point, and the availability of complementary resources during evenings, overnight periods, and low-solar weather.

RWE expects construction to employ up to 250 people at its peak. The company estimates $24.3 million of local economic activity and $1.4 million of state and local tax revenue during construction, followed by approximately $25 million for county programmes, emergency medical services, education, and other local functions over the project’s operating life.

Those benefits depend on Crooked Creek reaching construction and operating as planned. Before energisation, RWE must complete civil works, module and tracker installation, inverters, collection systems, substation equipment, communications, protection, metering, testing, and the interfaces required for SPP participation.

Oklahoma becomes part of a wider build-out

RWE already operates the 148MW Boiling Springs wind farm in Woodward County and has six further Oklahoma projects totalling 1.6GW in development. Crooked Creek adds solar generation to that state portfolio and gives the company a second operating technology if commissioning proceeds in 2028.

The company reports approximately 13GW of installed US capacity across solar, onshore wind, and battery storage in 27 states. It plans net investment of €17 billion in the United States by 2031, with the aim of adding 9GW and increasing installed capacity to 22GW.

That programme includes wind, solar, batteries, and flexible generation. The combination matters because rapid load growth is changing the commercial case for new assets. Customers want additional electricity, but system operators also need resources able to respond when variable generation falls or transmission becomes constrained.

Solar projects can be developed more quickly than many thermal or transmission assets, yet they remain dependent on interconnection studies, equipment availability, construction labour, permitting, and network upgrades. A signed PPA removes one material commercial uncertainty without removing those delivery risks.

For SPP, the project will enter a footprint covering a broad central US region with substantial wind generation, growing solar capacity, and long distances between generation and demand. The effect of another 155MW will depend on its location, dispatch conditions, and the strength of the surrounding network rather than capacity alone.

The agreement also illustrates how data-centre growth is influencing generation investment. A single corporate buyer can support a project large enough to affect a county’s construction market and tax base, while the network absorbs the physical power and manages its variability.

That relationship places greater scrutiny on whether new demand is matched by additional generation and by the grid capacity required to move it. A corporate PPA can support the financial case for a project, but it does not build the interconnection or provide generation during every hour the buyer consumes electricity.

RWE and Google have announced the offtake before on-site construction begins, leaving roughly two years to commercial operation. The PPA gives Crooked Creek a customer and a defined revenue relationship. The project still has to pass the more prosaic tests of procurement, site delivery, interconnection, commissioning, and dependable output before that agreement becomes electricity on the system.