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Project Partners:
Bonneville Power Administration, United States Department of Energy, Energy Northwest, Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Service, WallulaGen Corp. |
Location:
White Bluffs, WA |
Capacity:
40-50 kW |
Type of Power:
Solar |
Placed into Service:
May 2002 |
Project Links:
White Bluffs |
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White Bluffs takes its name from what is known as the Ringold formation. The exposed portions of the formation are the light and dark layers on the east bank of the Columbia River. The white layers are a lime-like deposit called caliche. The first people to live here were the Wanapum Indians, who inhabited the Columbia Basin from the mouth of the Yakima River to the Saddle Mountains to near the present day Beverly. They were closely connected to the Yakama, Palouse, and Nez Perce tribes and had a similar language.
Today, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation stretches through the area, covering 560 square miles of desert in eastern Washington, along 51 miles of the Colombia River. The reservation is considered one of the most contaminated environmental sites in the United States. BEF and its partners worked together to offset some of the negative impacts at the site and to make this sunny and dry location home to the largest grid-connected solar electric resource in the region. Located at the site of the terminated WNP-1 nuclear power plant on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, White Bluffs Solar is currently one of the largest grid-connected photovoltaic solar projects in the Pacific Northwest. The Hanford site is comparable to Sacramento, CA, which has long been considered an excellent solar resource. The site experiences less than six inches of rain each year. The available bus bar capacity at the site was developed with two nuclear reactors in mind and there are nearly 1,000 acres more of suitable land for solar on the site. |
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