Washington Business Summer 2018 | Washington Business | Page 23

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that way. The science doesn’t support that wind and solar is just sitting
out there stored somewhere. Solar and wind are an important piece
of the carbon-free energy mix in this country, but you cannot rely on
them as your sole method of electrical generation because you need a
baseload source out there that supports the grid and supplies steady,
reliable power 24/7, seven-days-a-week. There is no mythical place
where solar and wind power go during the day to use in the middle of
the night. I want to dispel the myth that we can rely on wind and solar
for all our power needs. Maybe somewhere down the road we’ll develop
battery storage capability, some of which is being researched right now,
but we’re probably decades away from that happening. So, from where
I sit, the carbon-free, stable baseload we need is nuclear power.
When we think of energy production today, we think of
innovation and imagination. What is Energy Northwest
working on to prepare for future energy needs and the
changing energy landscape?
We have a lot of things in the mix right now that we’re very proud of
through our energy services division. We have our Horn Rapids Solar
Storage and Training Facility that we’re working on in conjunction with
the city of Richland, IBEW [International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers] Local 77, the Washington State Department of Commerce,
Potelco and RETC, a training facility. What we’re looking to do is to
build 4 megawatts of solar power that will sit near us on the
Hanford site. Along with that, there will be 1 megawatt of
battery storage, which is becoming very important. When
it comes to resources like solar and wind, they will become
much more effective once we have better storage capability,
so the power is there to use at those times when it’s dark
outside and the wind isn’t blowing. We see this facility as