Many projects that enter the Oregon Energy Facility Siting licensing pipeline take several years, even decades, to become reality. Some also shrink in size. And still others don’t ever materialize.
That context acknowledged, the Echo Solar Project proposal that popped up in the past month is something to behold.
At 1,250 megawatts, it nearly matches all the existing solar in the state — 1,293 megawatts — as of March 31. That’s enough solar to power about 160,000 homes, based on Oregon average solar production and energy use data provided by the Solar Energy Industries Association. But in a sunny location with tracking technology, production could be higher.
The proposal also comes with a massive energy storage component that would increase its value: Containers filled with lithium-ion batteries strewn throughout the facility would be capable of storing up to six hours of maximum output, or 7,500 megawatt-hours, the developer says.
The project would go on 10,900 acres of private farmland about 20 miles south of Boardman in Morrow County.
Pine Gate Renewables, a North Carolina company, is behind the project through its Echo Solar LLC subsidiary. The company has a resumé — it owns the 10-megawatt Eagle Point solar array in Jackson County and has done projects around 100 megawatts, mostly in the Southeast United States.
Pine Gate told the Business Journal that Echo Solar is scaled to meet surging demand in the region.
“Oregon and the Northwest’s energy needs continue to grow,” the company said via email. “Customers and utilities are demanding new clean energy resources to meet the region’s reliability and climate action goals. The increased electricity demands from energy-intense infrastructure projects, like data centers and electric vehicle chargers, combined with rising natural gas prices, are creating the need for increased renewables over the next decade.”
The company added that it has had “initial conversations with multiple large corporate customers and investor-owned utilities in the area that will be procuring power under upcoming state and regional RFPs.”
The largest operating solar plant in Oregon is the 56-megawatt Gala project in Prineville, an Avangrid Renewables project that sells power to Apple.
Two other Avangrid projects now under construction for Portland General Electric’s Green Future Impact program are in line to top Gala: the 162-megawatt Montague project, which will serve 17 PGE customers, and 138-megwatt Daybreak Solar, which will serve one very big PGE customer, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC).
The Energy Facility Siting Council earlier this year approved the 400-megawatt Obsidian Solar Center in Lake County, four years after developer David Brown initiated the project. As with all renewable projects, construction hinges on landing an energy off-taker. Brown said Obsidian is in discussions with potential customers.
He too noted the aggressive climate goals in the region: Oregon is demanding 100% clean electricity by 2040, Washington by 2045.
“If we’re actually serious about the Oregon and Washington decarbonization goals, we need a lot more renewable energy generation,” Brown said.