The US Department of Energy (DOE) has unveiled plans to transform a former Manhattan Project site into a large-scale solar farm with a capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW). The Manhattan Project, a secretive World War II effort, was instrumental in developing nuclear weapons. This new project aims to repurpose the historical site for sustainable energy production, marking a significant shift from its original purpose.
The designated site for this solar initiative is the former Hanford nuclear testing facility, also known as Site W, located in Washington state. Hanford was home to the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor, and plutonium produced here played a key role in the atomic bombs dropped during World War II. The transition of this site to solar energy represents a dramatic change from its nuclear history.
US Department of Energy Plans 1 GW Solar Farm on Former Manhattan Project Site
Covering 580 square miles of semi-arid desert, the site could potentially become the largest solar project in the United States, surpassing the current record holder, the Edwards Sanborn Solar and Energy Storage project in California. Edwards Sanborn currently generates 875 megawatts of solar power, so this new project, if completed as planned, would set a new benchmark in solar energy capacity.
The DOE is collaborating with Hecate Energy on this project under the Biden-Harris administration’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative. This initiative, launched last year, focuses on converting DOE-owned land into sites for clean energy production. The program has already added approximately 90 GW of solar capacity to the national grid, enough to power 13 million homes, showcasing a commitment to expanding renewable energy.
However, the project is not finalized yet. The DOE and Hecate Energy still need to finalize a realty agreement, and there is a possibility that the government could halt negotiations at any point. Despite the promising news, the US is still behind Europe in solar energy production, with the US generating around 5.6 percent of its energy from solar, compared to the EU’s 9.1 percent. Nevertheless, both regions are showing positive trends in increasing their solar energy contributions.
