An electric company serving New Mexico, representatives of a nearby uranium enrichment plant and various consulting, engineering and government groups showed up for the clean power information day at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant this week.
More than a dozen groups participated in Wednesday’s event at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a list provided by the agency.
James Lackey, Xcel Energy’s manager of community & economic development in New Mexico, spoke during a panel at the Cleanup to Clean Energy program.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy is an electricity and natural gas supplier with operations in eight states, according to its website. The company seeks to deliver electricity with 100% net zero carbon emissions by 2050, though as of this week it had no development plans for the DOE’s WIPP site, a spokesperson said by email Tuesday evening.
Other organizations that participated include Air Compressor Solutions, Akana, Build CMC, CMX Services, Encorus, Mosher Enterprises, New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, the New Mexico Environment Department, New Mexico State University’s Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center, the office of Sen.Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Terracon, Undark and Urenco’s National Enrichment Facility.
In February, DOE issued a request for information on potential development of carbon-free electricity projects or 200 megawatts or more on surface land at WIPP, the agency’s disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste.
DOE said in the announcement there are roughly 9,000 acres of contiguous land at WIPP suitable for non-emitting electricity from sources such as solar, wind or nuclear power. Responses to the request for information were due last week.
