Bombs to beams: US to turn nuclear plutonium site into 1 GW solar farm

The Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to turn a former nuclear weapons development site in Washington state into a one gigawatt (GW) solar farm. Once a top-secret site producing weapons-grade plutonium, the Hanford site will soon generate clean energy as part of the DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative.

The US is making major strides in reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and deploying more solar and wind power plants. Estimates suggest that as much as 90 GW of solar energy capacity has been added to the grid in recent years, powering 13 million American homes.

As coal—and gas-fired power plants shut down, renewable energy companies are stepping up to repurpose the major facilities and ensure the continuity of jobs for those working in the industry.

The DOE is using a similar approach to repurpose lands that it owns and were previously used in the US nuclear program.  Launched in July 2023, the program has been dubbed Cleanup to Clean Energy since the DOE is keen to use these land parcels for clean energy generation alone.

At the Hanford site in Washington state, the DOE is working to build one of its biggest solar and battery energy storage projects.

What we know about the Hanford site

Located in Eastern Washington, the Hanford site is an 8,000-acre federal holding that was a top-secret location during the Second World War. Back then, the sprawling campus was a production factory for plutonium-239 and has continued to be so for the following four decades.

During this period, the site provided two-thirds of the plutonium needed for the US nuclear weapons program. After the production activities ceased, the DOE initiated a site cleanup program that employs about 11,000 people.

Now that the cleanup operation has been completed, the site is ready for a new role. The DOE has identified Chicago-based Hecta Energy for setting up a solar and battery energy farm. The proposal only plans to use a small sliver of land from the 8,000-acre campus for solar panel installation.

The Hanford site is also close to a LIGO observatory , which captures data about gravitational waves. The proximity to the scientific observatory is one reason wind energy installations have yet to be considered for such a massive campus.

The DOE and Hecta Energy still need to negotiate realty terms before work can begin.

Solar farm to clean energy park

If all goes to plan, Hecta Energy will build a 1 GW solar energy plant at the site in the next five to seven years. It will almost match the 1.2 GW of power produced by the Columbia Generation Station, a nuclear-powered plant,  on a neighboring land.

“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,” said Jennifer Granholm, the Energy Secretary at DOE in a statement.

The region’s ambitions, however, are much larger than a solar power plant—about 14,000 acres of land, including the Hanford site, has been identified as a clean energy park.

Companies are also keen to set up a small nuclear reactor in addition to providing continuous power output, a nuclear reactor would supply steam to nearby industries.

This report contains information that first appeared in Electrek , Recharge News , Seattle Times , and Tri-City Herald .