Pumped storage facilities are closed-loop systems that move water between a lower reservoir and an upper reservoir. Water is released from the upper reservoir and used to turn hydroelectric turbines to generate electricity before being collected in the lower reservoir and then returned to the upper reservoir to repeat the process. When the energy used to return the water is from solar or wind—as it is with the Goldendale Energy Storage Project—pumped storage is a carbon- and pollution-free source of on-demand power.

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, available 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 facilitate Washington, Oregon and California meeting 100% clean energy mandates.

The two biggest sources of renewable energy—wind and solar power—are variable, which means they 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 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 necessary to replace retiring fossil fuel-based sources.

The project is located entirely on privately owned lands within Klickitat County’s Energy Overlay Zone—a designation aimed at streamlining renewable 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. For inquiries related to accessing the site, please contact 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 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 Washington, Oregon and California transition to 100% renewable energy.

The Goldendale Energy Storage Project will be able to store electricity for 12 hours and switch to generating electricity at a moment’s notice. It will be able to generate 1,200 MW of renewable energy—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).

When fully operational, the Goldendale Energy Storage Project will have the capacity to store electricity for 12 hours a day. The project is far less resource intensive, and helps reserve limited and in-demand lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, in homes and office buildings, in data centers and beyond.

A 2019 study showed the Pacific Northwest would require five to 15 gigawatts of new renewable energy storage during the next 10 years in order to meet states’ renewable energy goals.

This is the equivalent of building 2,000 to 6,000 new utility-scale wind turbines. Additionally, if that five to 15 gigawatts of new storage capacity was built from lithium-ion battery technology, it would require approximately 275,000 to 825,000 acres, an area potentially larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.

The Goldendale Energy Storage Project is owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, an energy infrastructure investment company based in Denmark 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.

The project consists of two artificial 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. Extensive studies have found the project would not impact fish or the ability of people to fish near the project location.

Once the lower reservoir is filled, water would be recirculated between the lower and elevated reservoirs via an underground pipe. In comparison, open-loop pumped storage projects are continuously connected to a naturally flowing water feature, such as a river, often creating additional aquatic and terrestrial impacts that closed-loop facilities avoid.

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 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 may 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.

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To address the climate crisis, lawmakers in California, Oregon and Washington have mandated that 100% of their states’ electricity must come from clean resources. As a result, all regional utilities are seeking additional renewable electricity and storage capacity as they transition to a carbon-free grid.

Forecasts show the Pacific Northwest will need to plan for around 5,000 to 7,000 megawatts of additional carbon-free storage capacity to support our transition to a carbon-free grid. With the capacity to store electricity for 12 hours, Goldendale can be a critical component to 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 also 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 project has received a 401 Water Quality certificate from the Washington State Department of Ecology, which demonstrates that it does not have negative impacts on water quality.