Northwest new energy storage track

Are Puget Sound and Portland General Electric pursuing battery energy storage proposals?

Puget Sound Energy and Portland General Electric have pointedly solicited battery energy storage proposals in the last couple years. The first utility-scale battery storage systems in the Northwest were co-located with solar and wind farms.

Who is NextEra Energy Resources?

NextEra Energy Resources, the developer of the uncontroversial Troutdale and Mount Vernon battery storage projects, will be the guinea pig to test Whatcom County’s tightened zoning rules, which limit large-scale battery energy storage to parcels zoned industrial or rural.

Where is NextEra Energy building a battery farm?

This battery farm built by NextEra Energy entered service in Parrish, Florida in 2022. That company is also active in Oregon and wants to build the first standalone, utility-scale battery storage projects in Washington’s Skagit and Whatcom counties. (Doug Murray for FPL) This article was first published by the Salish Current.

Are battery farms coming to the northwest?

The first urban, large-scale battery farms in the Northwest are on track to enter service by the end of this year in Troutdale, Oregon, and just over a year later in Arlington in Snohomish County.

Will Tenaska build a battery storage facility near a salmon-bearing creek?

County Commissioner Lisa Janicki signed on to a unanimous statement of the county commission condemning the Tenaska plans for battery storage on land zoned for agriculture next to a salmon-bearing creek. Yet, she said she favors the other company’s plans to build the same kind of energy infrastructure less than 13 miles away.

Does Oregon need a public hearing for battery energy storage projects?

The wariness is far from universal though. Oregon’s first standalone, large-scale battery energy storage projects in Troutdale, Hillsboro and North Portland were permitted by city planning departments, who in some cases did not even require a public hearing.