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The US to Turn a Manhattan Project Nuclear Site into a 1 GW Solar Farm by Michelle Lewis Electrek, July 31, 2024

Through the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, DOE will leverage areas that were
previously used to protect our national security and will repurpose them to the same end.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) plans to build a 1 GW solar farm on a former top-secret Manhattan Project nuclear site in Washington State.

The DOE's plan is to work with Hecate Energy to repurpose the Hanford Site, an 8,000-acre federal land site, as part of the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative launched in July 2023. The program aims to repurpose parts of DOE-owned lands -- parts of which were previously used in the US's nuclear weapons program -- for clean energy generation.

Hecate Energy was chosen through a competitive qualifications-based process for evaluating and ranking proposals. DOE and Hecate Energy will undergo a negotiation process for a realty agreement, and DOE notes that it may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.

The future-solar Hanford Site in Washington State, established in 1943, was a top-secret location for the Manhattan Project during World War II, where nuclear reactors produced plutonium for the world's first atomic bombs. It sits in a section of semi-arid desert along the Columbia River.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said, "... DOE is transforming thousands of acres of land at our Hanford site into a thriving center of carbon-free solar power generation, leading by example in cleaning up our environment and delivering new economic opportunities to local communities."

Under the Biden-Harris administration, nearly 90 GW of solar capacity has been added to the grid, enough to power roughly 13 million homes.