Hecate executive details plans to revamp Oregon solar + storage complex

Hecate Energy is withdrawing its Notice of Intent for its 300 MW solar and up to 1,100 MW storage Bonanza project in Klamath County, Oregon with plans to refile the notice early 2023.

Mark Zwieg, development manager at Hecate, told NPM that the upcoming refiling will include over half a reduction in acreage size for the project. The change in acreage is also the reason the project’s Notice of Intent has been withdrawn for now.

“The changes are driven because we want to avoid prime farm ground,” Zwieg said, adding that modifications to the project’s study area were determined by legal counsel to be too major for an administrative change. This meant a refiling was needed.

The project, which has been in the works for about seven years, had a study area of 2800 acres with plans to have solar arrays on the flat areas. Now the arrays will be pushed up to the side slopes of hills instead of what is now identified as “prime farm ground.”

When asked if this will change the capacity size for the project, Zwieg said no. Hecate still expects the project to be 300 MW of solar with up to 1100 MW of storage to be charged by the solar and/or off the grid.

“We had to study a broad area of the property and prior to the studies, we filed for Notice of Intent so we can encompass a greater area and are now looking at specific locations on the parcels,” he said, stating that Hecate has been in the process of conducting environmental studies that already reduced the acreage size due to cultural or biological resources. “Looking at the concerns of developing on prime irrigated farm ground is the major change, so we’re looking at below half that acreage to be part of the study area.”

Additionally, Hecate does not expect this significant acreage reduction to change the project timeline either. Right now, the expectation remains for the commercial operation date (COD) to be late 2026.

“We have to still get through the interconnection and transmission service request, but feel that time is achievable,” Zwieg said, adding that Hecate’s engineering team initially looked at the location as the preferred site, allowing Bonanza to tie into a nearby 500 kV line and existing substation.

Zwieg added that there is no offtaker for the project yet but pointed out that the marketplace is very active right now.

“There’s a tremendous amount of demand,” he said. “I have been in the business a long time, got my start in NextEra on the utility side, then BP on the wind side, and remember how originators had to fight for offtake and prices at the time seemed low but now they are very high. The market has changed.”

He added that Hecate began pursuing the Bonanza project when it saw a need for battery storage in the Pacific Northwest and plan to use the project to help address those demands in the California, Oregon, and Washington state region.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.


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