In keeping with a White House-backed program to develop clean energy on Department of Energy weapons complex land, the Hanford Site in Washington state plans to host industry players this month in order to learn more about the property’s potential for carbon-free electricity.
DOE on Wednesday issued a request for information to seek out companies capable of leasing land at the former plutonium production complex and building sources of carbon-free electric power there.
“DOE is planning a Cleanup to Clean Energy Information Day in Richland, Washington, on September 22, 2023, for interested parties to ask questions and have an opportunity to see the land identified” for clean energy development, the agency said in a notice published online System for Award Management, or sam.gov.
The session is scheduled for 8 a.m. through 12 p.m. Pacific time on Sept. 22 at the Washington State University Tri-Cities Consolidated Information Center. Sept. 20 is the deadline for registering for that event.
There are 19,000 acres of land at Hanford located north of Richland with potential for electric power development, DOE said in materials published with the notice. The land involved is on the Hanford Site, but is accessible by the public, not requiring a stop at a federal security check-point, a DOE spokesperson said by email Thursday. It is south of the Wye Barricade and east of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory at Hanford, the spokesperson said.
The feds want to hear from parties with expertise “to design, permit, finance, construct, and operate utility-scale” projects, which means capable of producing at least 200 megawatts of electricity.
DOE also wants to hear from tribal and community stakeholders on such a potential undertaking, according to the request for information material. “DOE has not made any final agency decisions at this time and will continue to communicate with tribes and stakeholders on potential proposed land uses, as appropriate.”
“We have been hearing from a number of companies that seem to be really interested in exploring this,” said David Reeploeg, vice president for federal programs at the Tri-City Development Council, a group born in 1963 as the Tri-City Nuclear Industrial Council.
On Wednesday the Tri-City Development Council announced the formation of an affiliate, the Energy Forward Alliance, which will support carbon-free energy projects, Reeploeg said in a Thursday call with Exchange Monitor.
The types of energy projects being floated are “all over the map,” including solar, nuclear and even carbon-capture and storage, Reeploeg said.
In a statement Wednesday, the Washington, D.C.-based Energy Communities Alliance said it has many questions about DOE’s program: When will the land be available for power developers? How will DOE implement any leases for energy projects, and how much time is needed for National Environmental Policy Act reviews.
In July, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, with much fanfare in Washington. The program supports an executive order by President Joe Biden that calls for federal agencies to achieve 100% carbon-free energy, which can include wind, solar and nuclear among other options, on a net-annual basis as early as 2030.