“Large, energy-intensive businesses like data centers are driving demand for electricity across the Northwest. With the shrinking amount of vacant buildable land in Southwest Washington and the challenges to connect a new, large, energy-intensive business to the grid, Clark County may not be as attractive for new major technology endeavors as it once was. “If a company needs to invest in its own substation and run transmission lines and the site which can accommodate the company footprint is quite small, the project will not pencil,” said Jennifer Baker, president and chief executive of the Columbia River Economic Development Council. The challenges of connecting new businesses compound as available land grows farther from established developments.
BPA has about 150 energy-intensive projects in its queue across the region. (Two — both sponsored by existing utilities — are in Clark County.) Some of those requests date back to as early as 2005, although the vast majority are from the past four years. About 300 generation projects — like solar or wind — are also waiting for approval to connect to the grid, Johnson said. The BPA is in the midst of transforming its process so it will study projects in batches instead of individually. That could save its customers years on their projects’ development. But new projects that would use more energy rather than generate it are still studied individually.” (The Columbian, S. Wolf, 9.16.24)
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