Pumped storage facilities rely on gravity to produce energy. The system moves water between a lower reservoir and an upper reservoir. When energy on the grid is plentiful, this excess energy is used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir. When energy is needed, water is released from the upper reservoir and used to turn hydroelectric turbines, which generate on-demand electricity. The system is filled with water once, and then re-uses that water, continually repeating this process.

Pumped storage facilities are the most common form of energy storage in the United States, representing the vast majority of all utility scale storage, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Pumped storage is a proven, reliable technology that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Learn more about how the project works.

There is an urgent need to add long-duration energy storage to the grid to ensure more reliable electricity in Washington, Oregon and California, particularly as the demand for electricity increases, and as our region continues to produce more renewable energy.

The two biggest sources of renewable energy—wind and solar power—produce electricity only when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. Sometimes wind and solar facilities aren’t able to produce power when it’s needed, and other times they may produce more energy than the energy grid can handle. Utility-scale storage facilities such as the Goldendale Energy Storage Project allow energy generated from wind and solar resources to be stored and used when demand is highest. In Washington and across the greater Pacific Northwest, storage facilities like Goldendale will be critical to replace retiring fossil fuel-based sources.

The project is located entirely on privately owned lands within Klickitat County’s Energy Overlay Zone—a county designation aimed at streamlining and attracting energy development. All project construction will occur either on these privately owned lands or within an existing utility right-of-way that is owned by the Bonneville Power Administration. The upper reservoir would be located within the Tuolumne Wind Farm while the lower reservoir would be located on land formerly occupied by the Columbia Gorge Aluminum smelter. The owner will invest $10 million in environmental remediation at the lower reservoir site. The facility will use existing roads and transmission lines, minimizing costs and land use impacts.

The proposed Goldendale Energy Storage Project is located on private property with commercial uses underway, including cattle grazing, wind farm energy generation, and redevelopment of a former aluminum smelter. Therefore, requests to visit the site have been very infrequent. To ensure the safety of all visitors, requests to visit the site, for any purpose, including harvesting foods or hunting, should be made to the landowner: goldendaleaccess@gmail.com.

This project has all the criteria needed for a successful pumped storage project. This includes topography and elevation, access to transmission lines, water availability, an entrepreneurial landowner, a strong workforce and community support. The Goldendale Energy Storage Project meets all of these conditions, and is located entirely on private land that already services existing renewable energy with existing roads.

In addition, the region’s electricity grid has a direct and urgent need to add large-scale, long-duration energy storage to help the region meet the increasing demand for reliable and affordable electricity.

A 2024-25 study conducted by WSU (still in draft format) re-affirmed that the Goldendale Energy Storage Project location is one of the most suitable sites in the state of Washington for pumped storage hydropower due to many factors, including its location on private land and on a brownfield site near existing transmission.

The Goldendale Energy Storage Project will be able to store electricity for 12 hours and switch to generating 1,200 MW of energy at a moment’s notice —enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes in the Pacific Northwest.

This is one of the largest storage projects being proposed in the Northwest, but its land use impacts are relatively small. The Goldendale project will be constructed on a 680-acre site. To put that into perspective, building a 1,200 MW wind project would require about 7,000 acres of land (10 times the amount of Goldendale), and building a 1,200 MW solar project would require more than 50,000 acres of land (73 times the amount of Goldendale).

The Goldendale Energy Storage Project is owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, an energy infrastructure investment company focused on greenfield and renewable energy projects. CIP has a long track record of investing in projects that address climate change, positively benefit local communities, and create good-paying jobs. The company’s corporate ethic principles are guided by the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact.

Rye Development is leading a new generation of pumped storage hydropower in the United States and helping create a more reliable energy grid. The Rye Development team members leading the Goldendale project live and work in the Pacific Northwest and have decades of experience bringing hydropower projects from inception to operation through site identification, permitting, offtake and construction.

Rye Development has more than a decade of experience working with community leaders, elected officials, labor representatives, and other stakeholders, as well as with tribal nations, to design and implement hydropower projects that bring significant benefits to rural communities.

The project consists of two man-made reservoirs, neither of which touches the Columbia River or impacts fishing sites along the river. The Goldendale Energy Storage Project will purchase water from the Klickitat Public Utility District, just like any commercial water user would. Once the lower reservoir in the closed-loop system is filled, water is recirculated between the lower and elevated reservoirs via a pipe deep underground. The project would not impact people’s access to fish along the Columbia River.

The project will infuse more than $2 billion into rural areas of Washington and Oregon, benefiting local economies throughout the Gorge and providing Klickitat County with more than $14 million in new tax revenue annually. Specifically, new revenue will benefit schools, emergency support services, hospitals, fire departments, libraries, local roads, recreational districts and county services for the most vulnerable. The project will also create more than 3,000 family-wage jobs during its four-year construction period, and as many as 70 full-time operational jobs.

For many years, the former Columbia Gorge Aluminum smelter was a cornerstone of Klickitat County's economy, providing hundreds of family-wage jobs. The remediation efforts underway mean the property could once again provide valuable jobs to the community.

During construction, the project will support more than 3,000 family-wage union jobs that will pay an hourly wage ranging from $44.65 to $85.00. In 2022, the median hourly wage for non-federal jobs in Klickitat County was $25.31.

In March 2021, the project entered into an agreement with the Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council, ensuring the project will be built with union labor. Because of the long duration of the construction period, some workers will have the opportunity to complete a full construction apprenticeship on one job site, leaving the project trained and ready to be hired for future construction projects.

You can sign up for the Goldendale Energy Storage Project newsletter here.

Electricity demand in the Northwest could double in the next 20 years, according to a 2025 report released by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Lawmakers in California, Oregon and Washington have also passed laws to obtain 100% of their states’ electricity from clean resources. As a result, all regional utilities are seeking additional renewable electricity and storage capacity as they meet the growing demands for electricity and transition to a cleaner energy supply.

Forecasts show that energy demand in the Pacific Northwest will double of the next 20 years while states are working to meet 100% renewable energy mandates. With the capacity to store electricity for 12 hours, Goldendale is a common-sense way to meet utilities' long-duration storage needs.

Three decades of heavy industrial activities at the former aluminum smelter left behind soil and groundwater contamination at the site. The landowner, NSC Smelter, LLC, and past smelter operator Lockheed Martin Corporation are collaborating with the Washington State Department of Ecology to investigate and clean up the wastes and contamination remaining there.

Project owner Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has additionally committed $10 million to remediation of contaminated lands prior to construction. Cleanup would not begin until a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license for the project is issued.

In order to secure a license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Rye Development submitted a thorough application in June 2020. The following studies were completed to support the license application: Geology and Soils, Engineering, Wildlife Habitat/Botanical, Sensitive Plants, Wetlands and Waters of the U.S., Cultural Resources, Visual Resources and Socioeconomic. These studies conclusively demonstrate that the project will not adversely affect local fish or wildlife populations. For more information, visit our Resources page.

The Goldendale project has broad community support, including from the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council, the Columbia Pacific Building & Construction Trades Council, the Central Washington Building & Construction Trades Council, the Longview/ Kelso Building & Construction Trades Council, the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District, Klickitat Valley Health, Goldendale School District, Certified Electrical Workers of Washington, renewable energy advocates, Klickitat Public Utility District, Klickitat County and the City of Goldendale. Learn more here.

The owner of the project, CIP, will be purchasing water from Klickitat PUD just like any other commercial water user. Klickitat PUD and the county have been focused on finding new water customers to use the water right that was formerly allocated to the aluminum smelter, in part to replace the good-paying jobs the smelter once provided.

The Goldendale project is a closed-loop pumped storage facility where water is recirculated over and over. The system would be filled with water once, and replenished annually to make up for minimal evaporation—the equivalent of approximately 360 acre-feet of water per year. For comparison, the former aluminum smelter used 8,000 acre-feet of water annually.

Rye Development and project owner CIP are committed to building in an environmentally sensitive manner that minimizes impacts to fish and wildlife. In their final Environmental Impact Statements related to the project, the Washington State Department of Ecology and FERC found that mitigation measures at the project site would significantly reduce the impacts to fish and wildlife.

The Washington Department of Ecology issued the Goldendale Energy Storage Project a Section 401 Water Quality Certification in May 2023. The certification ensures the project design doesn’t harm water quality or aquatic life, including endangered fish.