The Department of Energy Wednesday announced the selection of two companies that will potentially develop hundreds of megawatts of electricity from solar power at the Idaho National Laboratory.
NorthRenew Energy Partners and Spitfire propose to install a combined total of 400 megawatts of carbon-free electricity at Idaho National Laboratory under DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy Program, the agency said in a Wednesday press release.
NorthRenew proposes to install photovoltaic solar along with battery storage to generate more than 300 megawatts on about 2,000 acres at the Idaho site. Spitfire intends to install upwards of 100 megawatts of photovoltaics and battery storage on about 500 acres.
The 400 megawatts would conceivably be enough electricity to power 70,000 homes, DOE said.
The Idaho awards are the first in DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy Program, part of a White House initiative to gradually wean federal installations off reliance on electricity generated by fossil fuels. The next step is for DOE to negotiate lease agreements with the two developers, according to the release.
“Tens of thousands of acres of DOE-owned land across the nation are being transformed into thriving centers of carbon-free power generation,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in the release. DOE plans more requests for proposals for clean energy at the Idaho site.
Robert Seifert, acting boss for infrastructure and regulatory policy at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, said this week at Exchange Monitor’s Radwaste Summit the initial awards would be out soon.
The announcement of clean power project selections come before DOE has the signed realty agreements in hand, Seifert, the cleanup branch’s acting boss for infrastructure and regulatory policy, told the Radwaste Summit in Louisville, Ky.
The actual realty agreements should be reached by the end of the 2024 fiscal year, on Sept. 30, Seifert said. “DOE is just leasing the land,” and the really hard work comes after the selection is made, Seifert said.
The selected developers will still need to work out plans for engineering, design, construction and permits for carbon-free power projects, Seifert said.
Secretary Granholm announced DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy program in July 2023. The picks are made by a DOE selection board, Seifert added. The five nuclear sites earmarked for the first tranche of the clean power program are the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, Nevada National Security Site, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.