(The Center Square) – Gov. Jay Inslee is largely getting what he asked for in a vote approving a large new wind and solar project in southeastern Washington.
In a meeting and final vote Friday afternoon that lasted just over 16 minutes, members of the WA Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council voted 4-3 in favor of approving a revised project recommendation to allow construction of the Horse Heaven Clean Energy Center just outside the Tri Cities.
The project run by Scout Clean Energy, a company that was recently purchased by a Canadian investment firm, may ultimately include 222 turbines about 500 feet tall or 141 turbines about 670 feet tall. There will also be solar arrays and battery storage, stretching from Horse Heaven Hills just south of Kennewick for about 24 miles from Finley to Benton City.
As previously reported by The Center Square, EFSEC spent three years studying the project before recommending to Gov. Jay Inslee in April that the project move ahead but with fewer wind turbines as it had proposed. EFSEC reduced the size of the project to protect endangered ferruginous hawks, Native American traditional lands and skyline views from much of the Tri-Cities.