The Department of Energy Tuesday issued requests for information from potential developers of carbon-free power projects at the Idaho National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
At Savannah River, four tracts of 2,000 acres or more on relatively flat land are available for potential clean energy projects, according to DOE’s Oct. 17 request for information. All the parcels can be accessed from public roads without passing through a Savannah River security barricade, according to the federal notice.
Comments on the Savannah River notice are due by 12 p.m. Eastern Time and should be emailed to Jeff Hynds, [email protected].
The DOE has already scheduled an Oct. 25 Idaho National Laboratory industry day for people to learn more about the energy potential of the 890-square mile site.
The lab is “at the forefront of the clean energy transition and developers can leverage that experience to bring their technologies to the grid,” DOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff said in a press release.
Comments on the Idaho request for information are due by 5 p.m. Mountain Time on Dec. 15, according to the release.
About 30 organizations took part in DOE’s initial Cleanup to Clean Energy industry day at the Hanford Site in Washington state last month.
In July, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the plan to tap thousands of largely unused acres at Cold War and Manhattan Project sites for clean energy projects that could each generate 200 megawatts or more of non-carbon-emitting electricity. The initiative is meant to further a December 2021 executive order from President Joe Biden to have federal agencies shrink their carbon footprint.
“As the leading federal agency on clean energy research, development, deployment, and demonstration, DOE has both a unique opportunity and a clear responsibility to lead by example and identify creative solutions to achieve the president’s mandate,” DOE Office of Environmental Management Senior Adviser William “Ike” White said in a Tuesday press release.
