US nuclear facility to be transformed into renewable energy project

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it is partnering with another energy company in a mission to transform some government-owned properties once used for the nation’s nuclear weapons program into prime real estate for renewable energy investments.

The federal agency will negotiate a lease with Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources Development for nearly 3 square miles of land surrounding the nation’s only underground nuclear waste storage facility.

The waste isolation pilot project in southern New Mexico is the latest to be announced by the Department of Energy. The department has identified more than 50 square miles of government land that could be used to build solar panels and battery storage systems that could provide utilities with emission-free electricity.

Negotiations are already underway for other leases, covering projects from the Hanford Site in Washington state, where the United States produced plutonium, to national laboratories and other facilities in Idaho, Nevada and South Carolina.

Andrew Mayock of the White House Council on Environmental Quality on Tuesday repeated a statement he made earlier this year when the first negotiations were announced. He said federal agencies are using their scale and purchasing power to support the growth of the clean energy industry.

“We will stimulate the production of new, clean electricity that will benefit our climate, economy and national security,” he said.

Federal officials say there is potential to install at least 150 megawatts of solar power and 100 megawatts of stored energy at a nuclear waste site in New Mexico.

While the amount of energy NextEra would generate at the WIPP site would be more than enough to meet the landfill’s needs, none of it would directly power government operations there. Officials said the energy from the solar installation would be sold to Xcel Energy by NextEra and fed into the utility’s distribution system.

Xcel serves customers in parts of New Mexico and Texas, as well as other states.

Officials said there was no estimate for when construction could begin. They said engineering and planning work would be needed after the lease is signed and regulatory approvals would be required.

The largest of the so-called clean energy projects is planned for the Hanford Site, where Hecate Energy LLC plans to deliver a gigawatt-scale system that would cover thousands of acres on the southeastern edge of the property. It could be several years before that project is up and running.