Solar farms are set to proliferate in a sun-soaked county in central Washington.
In May, a Yakima County Planning Division hearing examiner approved a conditional use permit for the 94-MW Black Rock Solar project, which will be able to power about 20,000 homes at full output.
Construction of the project is expected to begin in the first half of 2023 and be completed in mid- to late 2024, Brandon Reinhardt, development director for BayWa r.e. Americas said in an interview. Reinhardt declined to discuss the project’s budget.
The project is targeted for roughly 1,000 acres in eastern Yakima County, an area that has been attracting several solar ventures. BayWa plans to lease the land from a farmer, and the project’s solar panels will co-mingle with sheep that graze on the grass on the site. That would make the project Washington’s second agrivoltaic site, in which panels are located among crops and lands dedicated to grazing livestock.
The state’s first agrivoltaic project is scheduled to go online this month on the Colville Indian Reservation north of the Grand Coulee Dam. Two geodesic domes filled with various crops will be located adjacent to solar panels used to power the domes’ heat and water as well as some nearby homes.
At least four solar projects have targeted eastern Yakima County, a dry shrub-steppe area. “It’s essentially the strength of the sunshine,” Reinhardt said.
In December, Gov. Jay Inslee approved the 80-MW Goose Prairie project on 625 acres in eastern Yakima County at the recommendation of the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Evaluation Council (EFSEC).
Two more projects are going through reviews by EFSEC. In April, Cypress Creek Renewables applied to EFSEC for permission to build two 80-MW solar farms — High Top Solar and Ostra Solar — in the same eastern Yakima County region.
In Washington, solar and wind developers have the option of choosing to handle project permitting through either EFSEC or the appropriate county government.
While three of the projects chose the EFSEC route, BayWa wanted to work with the Yakima County government. “We had a supportive county staff. We didn’t feel much in the way of opposition,” Reinhardt said.