Gov. Jay Inslee last month approved the 80-MW Goose Prairie solar farm to be built in Central Washington.

“I believe this project is appropriately sited, and that the site certificate is legally adequate,” Inslee wrote in a Dec. 20 letter to the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC), which in November recommended the governor approve the project. (See Siting Council Endorses Central Wash. Solar Farm.) Inslee said the project is environmentally sound for the land it will occupy.

The project by OneEnergy Renewables (OER) of Seattle would be located near the town of Moxee in Yakima County. Goose Prairie’s application states that the 625-acre solar farm would interconnect with the Bonneville Power Administration’s 115-kV Midway-to-Moxee transmission line. The company is also retaining the option for a battery-storage system that would not exceed the 80-MW capacity of the project.

Inslee’s letter said the EFSEC did eventually consider the Yakama Nation’s concerns about the project’s effects on wildlife migration and the tribe’s access to the area for cultural reasons.

But “the council was not able to directly engage in early, ongoing and thorough government-to-government consultation with tribal governments,” Inslee added. Inslee wrote that EFSEC needs a more formal mechanism for consulting with the appropriate tribes on the effects on solar and wind turbine proposals. 

Now, OER must study the environmental impacts to any habitats for sensitive species and provide a mitigation plan, according to paperwork filed with the EFSEC. The council and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife would have to approve that plan. An EFSEC public hearing on the project held March 16 showed no opposition.

Central and Eastern Washington have four solar farms going through permitting, 28 on the drawing board, two under construction, and one in operation, according to state estimates. EFSEC is currently reviewing nine proposed wind and solar projects for the state.