The Department of Energy officially said Friday it is seeking competitive bids from qualified parties to help develop carbon-free electric power projects of at least 200 megawatts at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Proposals are due April 15, tax day, in response to the request for qualifications published March 1 in the system for award management (sam.gov). The proposals should be submitted by 11:59 a.m. Eastern Time.
Winning bidders will be expected to enter into a “realty agreement” with DOE to limit the government’s legal risk, according to material released with the solicitation. Developers will be largely responsible for arranging their own connection agreement with electric-utility-owned power lines.
Questions about the published notice are due by March 15, DOE said.
“Along with delivering on environmental cleanup, Hanford is ideally positioned to help meet our nation’s clean energy goals,” William (Ike) White, senior advisor for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) said in a press release that accompanied the notice.
The announcement came hours after a sister branch of DOE, the Office of Nuclear Energy, issued a similar noticefor the Idaho National Laboratory.
The Hanford nuclear cleanup site, used for decades to make plutonium for nuclear weapons, hosted a clean energy industry day in September.
In both cases the solicitations are part of DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy program, announced in 2023 by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
The program seeks to use thousands of unused acres at DOE nuclear sites, often part of buffer zone areas, to generate electricity from wind, solar and other sources that would not generate greenhouse gasses associated with fossil fuels.
According to the notice, the program would further President Joe Biden’s executive Order 14057 for agencies to use their properties for the development of new clean electricity generation.
