Department of Energy announces solar power project at Hanford Site - NBC Right Now
Department of Energy announces solar power project at Hanford Site | News | nbcrightnow.com
TRI-CITIES, Wash. - The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Fri., July 26 that it is starting to negotiate with Hecate Energy LLC to bring a solar power project to the Hanford Site.
The plan comes as part of the Cleanup to Clean Energy Initiative to turn DOE-owned lands that were previously part of the nation's nuclear weapons program into lands that provide clean energy.
A press release from the DOE says the solar project will be capable of delivering clean energy to areas within 8,000 acres of the project.
"Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, we’ve added nearly 90 gigawatts of solar capacity to the grid — enough to power roughly 13 million homes — and we're building on this historic progress with another massive solar project," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. "With today's announcement, DOE is transforming thousands of acres of land at our Hanford Site into a thriving center of carbon-free solar power generation, leading by example in cleaning up our environment and delivering new economic opportunities to local communities."
The announcement follows Biden signing Executive Order 14057 in Dec. 2021 that calls on agencies to reach 100 percent clean electricity by 2030.
Projects are already in the works in Idaho, Nevada and South Carolina, according to the DOE.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: solar
Declining costs and government encouragement have resulted in a rapid increase in solar energy production in the United States over the past 10 years, although solar’s share remains small: 1.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018. That rapid growth is projected to continue.