(Getty Images)
A large solar farm proposed in eastern Washington appears on course to clear a critical regulatory hurdle this month, despite opposition from the Yakama Nation.
After that, it would go for approval to Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has indicated a desire to see it proceed.
In August, Ferguson rejected a recommendation to approve the Carriger Solar project from the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.
While he found the project “consistent with state policies,” he wanted the council to talk further with Yakama Nation leaders about their concerns for protecting cultural resources on and around the proposed location.
Ferguson gave the council 60 days to report back, but did not direct any specific changes to a site certification agreement between the developer and the state. This resulted in a revised agreement that the council will consider in a special meeting Oct. 21. If it is approved, it will go to the governor.
There’s one substantive change. Cypress Creek Renewables, the firm behind the energy project, will provide $100,000 in grant funding to the Yakama Nation Cultural Resources Program for continued documentation of the archaeological and historical properties “in the vicinity” of the project. The money must be paid within the first 10 years of the project’s operation.
The company supports the revised agreement and providing the grant funds, said Angeli Chandler, the firm’s director of communications.
She said there’d been “years of careful planning and siting to avoid impacts to environmental or cultural resources.”
Yakama Nation officials who’ve opposed the project could not be immediately reached Tuesday.
Cypress Creek Renewables, based in Santa Monica, California, wants to build the solar farm north of State Route 142 along Knight Road, about two miles west of Goldendale in unincorporated Klickitat County.
As envisioned, it will have 160 megawatts of solar generating potential, enough to power up to 32,500 homes, according to the company website. The project, which also includes a 63 megawatt battery energy storage system, will tie into the Bonneville Power Administration transmission system.
It would occupy 1,326 acres within a 2,108-acre development site that is mostly agricultural and rural residential lands. That footprint includes all solar arrays, battery storage facilities, operations and maintenance building, employee parking, and access roads.
The revised agreement requires fencing and solar panels be pushed farther from the state route, Knight Road and parcels managed by the state Department of Natural Resources adjacent to the project. There also must be additional natural screening, such as earthen berms, rock piles, or native vegetation, on the north side of those state-owned parcels.
It also requires that tribal access to traditional and cultural properties is maintained during construction.
In conversations since late August, Yakama Nation leaders reiterated their concerns about the project and sought significant changes in mitigation measures that did not get included in the proposed revised agreement.
For example, the tribe said the council should not allow installation of solar panels in the northern portion of the project area, rather than rely on setbacks and natural screening to minimize the visibility of the panels. If the council allowed panels in that area, it should first conduct a full environmental impact study, the tribe said.
Tribal leaders also insist there will be disruptions to traditional cultural properties.
Ferguson, in August, found little fault with much of the siting council’s handiwork and stressed the importance of acting rapidly enough for project developers to secure federal clean energy tax credits before they are ended by the Trump administration. Solar and wind projects must begin construction by July 4, 2026, to fully qualify for the credits, he wrote.
“These tax credits are critical to ensure not only that the project remains financially viable, but that the energy it generates will remain affordable for Washingtonians,” he wrote the council in August.
