The Northwest’s largest proposed energy storage project just got the go-ahead from the federal government, which means construction could kick off in the next few years.
The Goldendale Energy Storage Project, based in south-central Washington, could generate enough energy to power almost all of Seattle’s homes for up to 12 hours.
The project would pump water between an upper and lower reservoir. Water would tumble from the upper reservoir through an underground turbine to generate energy when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Developers said this project will help fill in the gaps.
The project is key to the Northwest’s carbon-free energy future, said Erik Steimle, the chief development officer for Rye Development. He said that’s especially true as OPB reporting shows Washington is last in the nation in renewable energy growth. Oregon ranks No. 47.
“ A storage project like this that’s sustainable over a long period of time essentially becomes the backbone of the renewable energy grid,” Steimle said.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently handed out a 40-year construction and operations license to the project. FERC last issued a license for a hydroproject of this scale 12 years ago, according to the commission.
“ Very few new pumped storage projects have been built in the United States for decades,” said commissioner Lindsay See, at the commission’s Jan. 22 meeting.
FERC commissioners praised the Goldendale Energy Storage Project, noting that many other hydropower projects across the nation gained approval at the same meeting.
“There's intense focus here in Washington (D.C.) on: how do we get these projects permitted faster,” said commissioner David Rosner.
It took the commission about seven years to approve the Goldendale project, according to Rosner. He said that while state, federal and local reviews are important, that timeline could be shrunk if consultation with tribes moved at a faster pace.
But the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and environmental groups have insisted that the amount of time spent on consultation should not be decreased.
Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Gerald Lewis issued a statement in response to the federal licensing approval.
“Elected Yakama leadership have met with tribal leaders in Oregon who face similar challenges – regulators in D.C. that do not hold private developers accountable to the laws that are meant to protect the environment, our foods or important historical sites, and instead issue incomplete licenses with only an afterthought of losses and destruction to Yakama resources,” Lewis said.
This particular project, opponents said, will destroy sacred sites, including the spot where the Rock Creek Band of the Yakama Nation survived the Missoula Ice Age floods nearly 15,000 years ago.
“This whole area is really sacred from the bottom all the way to the top (reservoirs), where they want to build this pumped storage (project),” Rock Creek Band member Elaine Harvey told NWPB in a previous interview.
A lot of the problem stems from a lack of understanding of sacred sites, said Simone Anter, a senior staff attorney with Columbia Riverkeeper.
“Sacred site destruction in the name of development is nothing new in this nation,” she said.
Project developers said they have worked with tribes to try and find ways to lessen any damage. In addition, Steimle said, FERC has a rigorous licensing program.
“We worked with the tribes to hire their own staff to do cultural resource survey work, ethnographic survey work in our project area,” Steimle said during an earlier tour of the project site. “It's important to understand that tribal nations need to be heard. They're an important part of the process.”
The license requires developers to come up with a Historic Properties Management Plan, which Anter said should have been developed before the license was approved.
Next, project opponents have 30 days to decide whether they’d like to challenge the license. Steimle said construction would likely kick off in a couple years.
“ Goldendale and the state of Washington, once this is operational, become essentially the envy of lots of other regions to have such a long-life, low-cost source,” Steimle said.
Another Rye Development pumped storage project near Klamath Falls, Ore., received a FERC license in 2019, but the project has yet to move to the construction phase. Construction is expected to begin for the Swan Lake Energy Storage project in 2027 or 2028.
