Harnessing the
Horse Heaven Wind & Sun
Scout Clean Energy has been working to develop a wind energy project in Benton County since 2016, and earlier this year the Horse Heaven Wind Farm was announced as a potential 600MW wind energy facility. Scout recently acquired new interconnection capacity that will allow the addition of solar and battery storage components that will scale the project up to 1150MW of renewable energy. Hybrid systems can help stabilize grids, increase efficiencies, and lower power costs. For more details on this innovative update, visit our News Page.
At full build-out, the Horse Heaven project could generate substantial property tax revenue to Benton County over the design life of the project (approximately 25 years), and under current allocations, the largest proportion of those funds would support local schools.
The Horse Heaven Wind Farm will be located just south of the Tri-Cities and would bring up to 1150 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy to the region and the state of Washington. The project will consist of a maximum of 244 turbines — while also generating local tax revenue and employment opportunities. The project will create approximately 930 temporary construction jobs (direct, indirect, and induced) and 56 long-term family-wage permanent positions (direct, indirect, and induced) once the facility begins operation.
Renewable Energy
On the Horizon
To-date, the company has substantial acreage south of the Tri-Cities under wind energy lease and easement agreements with landowners that are participating in the development. The project area consists primarily of private, cultivated agricultural land where each turbine and associated access roads removes only about a half-acre from agricultural production.
Scout Clean Energy is a utility-scale wind energy developer based in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 2016, Scout is a young company but made up of a long-standing management team with an extensive track record developing large-scale wind projects, such as the Persimmon Creek Wind Farm in Woodward County, Oklahoma that began operations in December 2018, the Ranchero Wind Farm in Crockett County, Texas that began operations in October 2019 and the Heart of Texas Wind Farm in McCulloch County, Texas that began operations in May 2020. This brings Scout’s operational portfolio of wind energy generation to 698 MW with a further 146 MW under construction and more than 4,000 MW in our active development pipeline.