BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2022 A5
STATE & NATION
‘Reliable, renewable,’ historic
Oregon utility powers up nation’s first large-scale wind, solar, battery facility
BY MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
MORROW COUNTY — Nestled
in the hills of Morrow County, hun-
dreds of solar panels and wind tur-
bines are generating a product that
will soon be in high demand around
the state — clean electric energy.
But storing large amounts of renew-
able energy has proven challenging.
Wind and solar only generate power
when the sun is shining or the wind is
blowing. Otherwise, fossil fuels kick
back in. Now, one major utility in Or-
egon is trying to produce energy 24/7
with a boost from a critical compo-
nent — batteries.
Portland General Electric, which
also relies on power generated by
hydroelectric dams, partnered with
NextEra Energy Resources to build
a first-of-its-kind facility that will
use an innovative battery technology
that supporters are calling a “game
changer” for Oregon’s renewable en-
ergy transition. The batteries allow the
Lexington facility to capture and store
electricity even when there’s no sun or
wind available.
“I think you’re going to see more of
these types of facilities in the future,”
said Kristen Sheeran, Portland Gen-
eral Electric’s director of sustainability
strategy, on a recent tour. “We’re still
in the early years of battery storage
technology development.”
The Wheatridge Renewable En-
ergy Facility is about 30 miles from
the utility’s now-shuttered Boardman
coal plant and uses some of the same
transmission lines. It started operat-
ing in March and generates up to 350
megawatts of clean energy — enough
to power about 100,000 homes.
The batteries store 30 megawatts, or
enough to power the city of Tigard for
four hours.
Powering up
PGE’s push for clean energy is
driven in large part by House Bill
2021. It’s one of the nation’s most am-
bitious climate plans and was signed
into law in 2021 by Gov. Kate Brown.
The law requires utilities like PGE and
Pacific Power to reduce carbon emis-
sions by 100% by 2040.
Sheeran said battery storage will
Jana Lehn, NextEra’s PV
Solar Field Technician,
is one of the first techni-
cians cross-trained in all
three renewable technol-
ogies. “From our inverter
we can go out to the grid
or we can go and charge
our batteries,” she said.
“Then at night when we
don’t have any sun to
produce power, we can
push power from our
batteries through our in-
verter out to the grid.”
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/
Oregon Public Broadcasting
help them get there by improving reli-
ability and creating storage that allows
the facility to function 24/7.
“Sites like this are fitting into sort
of a larger grid network of providing
reliable, renewable power that utilities
across the West are increasingly draw-
ing on,” Sheeran said.
David Lawlor is NextEra’s director
of development for the Pacific North-
west. NextEra one of the world’s larg-
est generators of wind and solar en-
ergy and a leader in integrated battery
storage systems.
He said as battery technology ad-
vances, the facility will be able to han-
dle more storage. Right now, there are
21 large and small battery containers
at the facility.
“One of the great things about hav-
ing battery storage integrated into the
other two technologies, is it’s already
engineered and built for augmenta-
tion,” Lawlor said. “So these contain-
ers can take more batteries and as the
batteries become a little less efficient,
we add more batteries to keep the ca-
pacity.”
Jana Lehn, NextEra’s PV Solar Field
Technician, is one of the first techni-
cians cross-trained in all three renew-
able technologies. She said her role at
Wheatridge is to make sure the facil-
ity and batteries are working properly
and train other technicians.
So far, only solar panels generate
enough energy to charge the batteries.
Lehn said the energy collected by so-
lar panels produces direct current or
DC voltage similar to car or cell phone
batteries. The DC voltage then goes
to an inverter, or the central point of
where all the power goes and changes
into alternating current or AC voltage.
“It does its little magic, it turns it
to AC voltage, which that’s what our
transmission lines carry,” she said.
“Your AC voltage is going to be the
plug on your wall at your home.”
This process helps the energy col-
lected become “clean energy” and it,
in turn, creates an easier flow to power
homes.
“From our inverter, we can go out
to the grid or we can go and charge
our batteries,” she said. “Then at night
when we don’t have any sun to pro-
duce power, we can push power from
our batteries through our inverter out
to the grid.”
‘You need flexibility’
Bob Jenks, executive director of the
Oregon Citizens Utility Board, said
the Wheatridge facility represents a
step in the right direction for Oregon’s
clean electricity efforts. It also removes
the dependence on only one source of
clean energy.
“You need diversity of renewable re-
sources,” he said. “You need flexibility
with them and the battery here is pro-
viding that flexibility.”
Jenks said battery storage is be-
coming increasingly important in the
clean energy transition, as utilities fig-
ure out ways to move power from one
time of the day to another. Adding
batteries to the mix will change when,
where, and how clean energy is cre-
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Solar panels and wind turbines work to create clean electric power May 24, 2022, at
Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility in Morrow County. Portland General Electric
partnered with NextEra Energy Resources to build a first-of-its-kind facility that will
use an innovative battery technology that supporters are calling a “game changer”
for Oregon’s renewable energy transition.
ated and stored across the state.
“That comes in real valuable be-
cause solar stops producing in late
afternoon, early evening — but that’s
when people get home from work and
tend to turn on their air conditioning,”
Jenks said.
Jenks cautioned there could be
some downsides to the technology,
and questioned the ability of batteries
to manage the power load and travel
long distances. For example, he said
PGE’s decision to locate the batteries
at the facility could mean that by the
time the energy makes it to the Wil-
lamette Valley, some of its power has
been lost.
He also said storage capacity can
decline over time as the battery’s life
capacity depletes. Weather is another
variable that can affect how batteries
store energy.
“Anyone who owns an electric vehi-
cle knows that in the winter you don’t
get the same amount of miles as you
get in in the summer,” he said. “Cold
weather has negative effects on the
ability to charge and maintain power.”
But overall, Jenks said the facility is
a smart investment and will likely be
good for ratepayers.
“This is a good example of how the
technologies are there,” he said. “And
in Oregon, there’s the political will to
require our utilities to use that tech-
nology.”
‘Tip of the iceberg’
Adam Schultz, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Energy’s electricity and mar-
kets policy group lead, said he expects
more projects to follow Wheatridge’s
lead by combining different technolo-
gies like wind, solar, hydropower and
batteries to generate and store more
clean energy. But that is also going to
prompt a change in the current power
system grid.
“If you’re going to try to generate
enough clean megawatt hours to dis-
place all the fossil fuels on the system,
you’re going to need to move those
megawatt hours around to be avail-
able 24/7,” he said. “This is sort of
what we expect to see in the future.”
Schultz said Oregon’s electric sys-
tem was built for transporting power
when needed rather than collecting
it. He said it doesn’t take a lot of stor-
age to begin to have an impact on the
power grid, and facilities like Wheat-
ridge will help other utilities think
differently about storage and getting
clean energy on the power grid.
Storage also can save ratepayers
money during peak hours, Schultz
said. Especially in the summer
months when air conditioning units
are running full blast.
“So that’s sort of the game-changer
of storage at a very broad scale,” he
said. “Sort of the tip of the iceberg
there of what’s coming.”
As battery storage becomes more
common, Schultz said it’s hard to
overstate the role it will have in the
next 40 years and he expects states like
Oregon will take a more streamlined
approach to clean energy and share
resources with other states.
Texas massacre spurs Oregon gun-safety ballot initiative
BY ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — When Rae-
vahnna Richardson spotted a
woman standing outside a li-
brary in Salem gathering signa-
tures for a gun-safety initiative,
she made a beeline and added
her name.
“I signed it to keep our kids
safe, because something needs
to change. I have a kid that’s
going to be in first grade this
upcoming season, and I don’t
want her to have to be scared at
school,” Richardson said.
“To keep our kids safe.” It’s
something so many parents
across the United States are
worried about after the horrific
massacre of 19 children and
two teachers in Uvalde, Texas,
last month. That mass shoot-
ing has given the Oregon bal-
lot initiative huge momentum,
with the number of volunteers
doubling to 1,200 and signa-
tures increasing exponentially,
organizers said.
Fireworks
Continued from A1
Registration starts at 7 a.m.
in the Haines park for the
5K/10K fun run and walk,
which is a fundraiser for the
Baker High School track pro-
gram.
The Haines Mutual Im-
provement Club will have a
pie sale starting at 9 a.m. at
City Hall, 891 Front St. Pro-
Getty Images/File
A group hopes to put an initiative on the November ballot in Oregon
that would include limits on the capacity of certain gun magazines.
With the majority of state
legislatures having taken no
action on gun safety in recent
years, or moving in the oppo-
site direction, activists see vot-
er-driven initiatives as a viable
alternative.
“To get really strong action
at this moment in time, it’s
going to take people in a de-
mocracy to exercise that dem-
ocratic right to get on the ballot
and get it voted for,” said the
Rev. Mark Knutson, a chief
petitioner of the Oregon ini-
tiative.
Oregon appears to be the
only state in America with a
gun safety initiative underway
for the 2022 election, according
to Sean Holihan, state legisla-
tive director for Giffords, an or-
ganization dedicated to saving
lives from gun violence.
If the initiative gets on the
ballot and it passes, anyone
ceeds benefit the Haines Ele-
mentary School.
Steffi Carter will sing the
national anthem just before
the parade, which starts at
10 a.m.
Rowe said organizers are re-
questing that there be no po-
litical entries in the parade.
“Kind of forget the rest of
the world and celebrate Amer-
ica,” she said.
The Spec. Mabry James An-
ders Memorial Fund barbecue
will start at 11 a.m. and the
Haines Art Festival will run
from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the
park.
Barefoot & Bonafide will
perform in the park at 11 a.m.
The Baker County Sher-
iff’s Office will serve free sno-
cones in the park.
Rowe said organizers have
also introduced the “water
zone” at the end of the parade
wanting to acquire a firearm
would first have to get a per-
mit, valid for five years, from
local law enforcement after
completing safety training,
passing a criminal background
check and meeting other re-
quirements. The measure
would ban ammunition maga-
zines over 10 rounds, except for
current owners, law enforce-
ment and the military, and the
state police would create a fire-
arms database.
The age range of those gath-
ering signatures from regis-
tered voters runs from mid-
dle-schoolers to a 94-year-old,
Knutson said. Volunteers are
ensconced in a room at Au-
gustana Lutheran Church in
Portland, sorting through bas-
kets of envelopes containing
mailed-in signatures.
The National Rifle Associ-
ation’s Institute for Legislative
Action has already come out
strongly against the initiative,
saying on its website that “these
anti-gun citizens are coming
after YOU, the law-abiding
firearm owners of Oregon, and
YOUR guns. They don’t care
about the Constitution, your
right to keep and bear arms,
or your God-given right of
self-defense.”
Knutson says the effort in
Oregon “can start to build hope
across the nation for others to
do the same.”
Voters in two predominantly
Democratic neighboring states
have already passed gun safety
ballot measures.
In 2018, Washington state
voters approved restrictions on
the purchase and ownership of
firearms, including raising the
minimum purchasing age to
21, adding background checks
and increasing waiting peri-
ods. In 2016, voters there over-
whelmingly approved a mea-
sure authorizing courts to issue
extreme risk protection orders
to remove an individual’s ac-
cess to firearms.
California voters in 2016
passed a measure prohibiting
the possession of large-capac-
ity ammunition magazines and
requiring certain individuals
to pass a background check to
buy ammunition.
The same year, voters in
Maine narrowly defeated a pro-
posal to require background
checks before a gun sale.
Daniel Webster, co-direc-
tor of the Center for Gun Vio-
lence Solutions at Johns Hop-
kins University, said ballot
initiatives “are a great way to
advance gun policies that are
popular.”
“But I honestly don’t know
how much one state’s ballot ini-
tiative affects the likelihood of
other states taking action,” he
added.
The Oregon initiative needs
to deliver at least 112,080 regis-
tered voters’ signatures — ver-
ified by the secretary of state’s
office — by July 8 to get on the
ballot, Knutson said.
on the park side at the end of
Front Street.
“If you want to get wet, you
need to be in that water zone,”
Rowe said. “And they can
bring water guns too to fire
back at the Fire Department.”
Rowe said they didn’t want
the spectators and the little
kids running out to the parade
to get wet. They decided to
have a water zone at the end
rather than risk having kids
run in the street.
Fireworks will start at
10 p.m.
Rowe said organizers always
need donations to help pay for
the fireworks show.
This year’s show cost $2,000
more than last year, without
adding more fireworks, she
said.
The Haines Stampede Ro-
deo runs both July 3, starting
at 5 p.m., and July 4, starting at
1:30 p.m.
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