The Department of Energy is starting to shop for developers of carbon-free electricity projects on land at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., the agency announced Tuesday.
The request for information notice was published online in the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM.gov). The targeted projects should be capable of generating at least 200 megawatts of electricity, according to DOE.
Responses are due by 4 p.m. Mountain Time on March 20, according to the notice.
DOE is not yet seeking proposals. The Carlsbad Field Office, which oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), is doing market research to identify entities capable of entering into an agreement to develop utility-scale carbon pollution-free electricity projects, DOE said.
DOE has identified about 9,000 acres of land potentially suitable for development at the WIPP site, about 26 miles east by road of Carlsbad and 36 miles west of Hobbs, N.M. Potential sources of renewable electricity at the site could include solar, wind, nuclear or other fuels, according to materials released with the information request.
This is part of DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative to develop carbon-free electric power sources on unused land at Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm formally kicked off the program in July 2023. Similar carbon-free power projects are being targeted at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Nevada National Security Site and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
