Locals still have fingers crossed on major Hanford solar project

Local development officials in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state remain cautiously optimistic a major new solar power project envisioned for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site will happen despite a change in administrations.

Officials at DOE and the Chicago-based developer, Hecate Energy, both declined comment last week. Also last week, Roger Jarrell, a DOE senior adviser for environmental management, told Exchange Monitor the department is still reviewing the Cleanup to Clean Energy program.

The initiative launched during the Joe Biden administration was meant to tap underutilized land at DOE nuclear cleanup sites for carbon-free energy projects. In the early days of his new term, President Donald Trump has been less supportive of renewable energy and combating climate change has not been a high priority for the new Energy Secretary Chris Wright. President Trump on Jan. 20 revoked the Biden executive order that called for federal sustainability plans.

But many around the weapons complex think some of last year’s previously-announced projects might go forward.

“DOE says it is still assessing the project. … It’s hard to get a sense of where they are at with it,” said David Reeploeg, executive vice president of the Tri-Cities Industrial Development Council, an economic development nonprofit. Sean O’Brien, executive director of the Forward Energy Alliance, a TRIDEC offshoot that concentrates on clean energy, said the Trump administration has indicated that it supports homegrown power production

Both said if the Hecate project goes forward soon it would be one of the larger solar installations in the United States with the ability to generate upwards of 1,000 megawatts in the 2030s. DOE announced last July Hecate would seek to negotiate a realty agreement for 8,000 acres at Hanford, the one-time plutonium production complex.

The Hecate project would be located near Energy Northwest’s 1,200-megawatt Columbia Generating Station reactor.