RICHLAND, Wash. , August 6, 2024 (ENS) – The U. S. Department of Energy is investigating the U. S. Department of Energy in the United States. The U. S. government is initiating negotiations with a Chicago company to build one of the nation’s largest solar and battery garage projects at the site where plutonium-powered nuclear weapons for the outbreak of the Cold War are located at the Hanford site in southeastern Washington.
“Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, we’ve added approximately 90 gigawatts of solar capacity to the grid, enough to power about thirteen million homes, and we’re building on that historic progress with a large solar project,” the Energy Secretary said. Jennifer Granholm.
“With today’s announcement, DOE is transforming thousands of acres of land at our Hanford into a thriving hub for carbon-free solar energy generation, leading by example in cleaning up our environment and offering new economic opportunities for local communities,” said Secretary Granholm. .
The Department of Energy announced Thursday that it has selected Hecate Energy, based in Chicago, Illinois, for a gigawatt-scale allocation on up to 8,000 acres of unused nuclear reserve land near the southeast boundary of the Hanford site. About 14,000 acres in the southeast corner of Hanford are leased for blank energy production.
Formerly called the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the decommissioned nuclear production complex occupies more than 500 square miles of land on the Columbia River, about two hundred miles (322 kilometers) southeast of Seattle. It is controlled through the United States federal government.
For nearly 30 years, the United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy produced tons of plutonium for the United States’ atomic weapons program. The activities at Hanford produced hazardous chemical waste and radioactive materials, totaling 56 million gallons (212 million liters) of radioactive waste stored in underground tanks. Some of those pollutants have seeped into the soil and water, adding the Columbia River.
The nuclear reactors, first built as part of World War II’s top-secret Manhattan Project, required enormous amounts of water to keep the cores cold. Chromium compounds added to prevent the appliances from corroding entered the river, destroying fish and wildlife habitat.
Today, it employs approximately 11,000 people for environmental cleanup and maintenance, at a cost of approximately $3 billion per year.
Today, in addition to extensive cleanup operations, Hanford is the only operating nuclear power plant in the Pacific Northwest, the Columbia Power Plant operated through Energy Northwest. It generates about 1. 2 gigawatts of baseload electrical power, or about 10% of the electrical power used in Washington state.
Energy Northwest, a Washington state joint operating company, owns and operates a portfolio of blank power, hydroelectric, solar, wind, battery storage, and nuclear power projects.
The solar mission could be operational within five to seven years. This would be the largest allocation in the Department of Energy’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative announced in July 2023. This program reuses amounts of DOE-owned land, adding land in the past used in the weapons program of the country’s nuclear corporations, for blank energy. Assignments.
“We will reclaim the land we have used for decades for nuclear protection and environmental remediation by working intensively with local tribes and communities, as well as personal sector partners, to build some of the largest blank energy projects in the world,” said Secretary Granholm. Through the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, the DOE will exploit spaces that were once used to protect our national security and repurpose them for the same purpose: this time, to generate blank power that will help save the planet and protect our energy independence.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, Office of Nuclear Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration are aware of approximately 70,000 acres in progress at five sites:
Expanding electric power production creates good-paying jobs, protects the environment and supports communities across the country, said Brenda Mallory, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
However, when the Clean Energy Initiative was proposed, considerations arose that a giant solar allocation in Hanford may not be the most productive use of limited land slated for commercial use and upgrade work in Hanford once it is complete environmental cleanup.
At Hanford, up to 14,000 acres have been proposed for a blank electric park.
The Tri-City Development Council, TRIDEC, has requested that some land be set aside for its vision of a greenfield energy park complex, adding a north-south land hall that would link the Hanford land transferred to the grid in 2015 with the lands that Energy Leases of the Northwest. This land is included in the negotiations for the Hecate project.
“We appreciate that the DOE responded to the community’s preference to maintain the hall which is critically important to realizing our vision of the Northwest Advanced Clean Energy Park,” said David Reeploeg, vice president of federal programs. at TRIDEC. “We have the opportunity to redevelop this hall into something truly special, adding the cutting-edge industries and jobs we seek to attract in the future. »
Located at the confluence of the Columbia, Snake and Yakima rivers in southeastern Washington state, the Tri-Cities are: Kennewick, with 84,000 residents, the regional retail and entertainment center, Pasco, Richland and West Richland. The domain is known for its more than three hundred days of sunshine a year.
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, D. C. , and Rep. Dan Newhouse, D. C. , R-D. C. , said Secretary Granholm was aware of the Tri-Cities community’s interest in preserving the land for a complex blank electric park.
Hecate approached TRIDEC about its plans and committed to partnering with Tri-Cities netpaintings to the sun and the battery garage allocation aligns with netpaintings’ plans for a complex white-out electric park, Sean O’Brien said , CEO of Energy. Advanced alliance. The alliance will work with Hecate to maximize opportunities similar to its solar mission, O’Brien said.
An empty energy hub with solar, hydropower, wind, nuclear, and operational power facilities, the Tri-Cities region is home to thousands of workers in energy-related fields and a wide diversity of business leaders. industry, research, education, public service, networking, and Washington State. and become a blank power style for the nation.
Regional leaders have created a business environment to help make Washington’s long-term blank power a reality by finding answers that maintain existing power resources while transitioning to reliable and affordable blank power.
Recognizing that strong regional partnerships are needed to achieve ambitious white energy and carbon relief goals, an organization of regional CEOs has committed to a long-term partnership based on a shared vision for the region and increased investments.
Most of Hanford, 580 square miles, is now part of the Hanford Reach National Monument or designated for conservation once environmental cleanup is complete.
Hecate Energy will have to complete its task and return the land it uses to its current state until the end of the environmental cleanup at Hanford, which could take around fifty years.
Eleven corporations submitted proposals for blank energy projects on the Hanford land; None of the other proposals addressed are for the remaining commercial land in southeast Hanford.
Hecate decided to rely on its allocation plan, the technical parameters of the plan, the company’s experience, and its plan to communicate with Tri-Cities domain residents, tribes, and other stakeholders. Their proposal, along with the other 10 proposals, has not been made public.
No resolution has been made on how the solar force would be used, but the Department of Energy would possibly employ the force directly at the Hanford site.
More strength would also attract new industries to the Tri-Cities. But the task would not produce baseload electrical power that would supply electrical power regardless of weather conditions. Now, maximum battery allocations store power for a few hours, such as at night. when the sun is shining, but not for days or weeks at a time.
Benton County proposes four other smaller onshore solar projects and two Energy Northwest solar projects.
Hecate Energy also lists on its website a 100-megawatt solar and battery garage assignment under development in Benton County, but does not indicate the location of this assignment. Founded in 2012, Hecate develops solar and wind plants and electric garage assignments throughout the United States. , many of them in the southeast and along the Atlantic coast. The company has projects underway to generate more than 40 gigawatts of electricity.
Editor’s note: The Tri-City Herald contributed to this report.
Featured Image: Hecate Energy led one of the first large-scale solar assignments completed in the Commonwealth of Virginia – progress, financing and construction management. This allocation was sold to Dominion Energy at the progression price, which ended in the second quarter of 2017. (Photo courtesy of Hecate Energy)
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