Developers Proposing Over 5,400 Megawatts of New Generation in Washington State

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). There is currently about 27,000 megawatts of operational power generation capacity in the state of Washington with about 5,800 megawatts of fossil-related generation and over 21,000 megawatts of renewable energy generation. Developers of power generation are proposing to add another 5,400 megawatts of electrical generation to the grid consisting of over 2,750 megawatts of proposed fossil fuel generation and over 2,650 megawatts of proposed renewable energy projects.

Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of new power units under development in Washington by fuel type.

The proposed renewable energy projects have a new possible heavy hitter in the renewable generation, tidal energy. Currently, there are four groups studying the use of tidal energy. A private energy producer Oceana Power Company (Washington, District of Columbia), who is looking at projects on both the northeast and northwest coasts of the United States. The Makah Indian Tribe (Neah Bay Washington) is working with the AquaEnergy Group (Mercer Island, Washington), a subsidiary of Finavera Renewable, Limited (Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland) for a 1-megawatt (MW) pilot plant. Tacoma Public Utilities (Tacoma, Washington) is also looking at a pilot plant, that if successful will be expanded to over 44 megawatts. The last group is the Public Utility District (PUD) No. 1 of Snohomish County (Everett, Washington), who is currently proposing to build seven tidal energy projects.

Wind is still being proposed for the majority of new renewable energy projects with fourteen projects totaling over 1,750 megawatts of proposed generation. Hydroelectric generation is looking to do most of its increases by modernization, but it will still remain the most prevalent source of generation in the state with capacity of about 20,700 megawatts.

For more information on future business trends and project spending in the Power Industry, check out Industrial Info’s 2006 Power Industry Forecast.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a Marketing Information Service company that has been doing business for over 23 years. IIR is respected as the leader in providing comprehensive market intelligence pertaining to the industrial processing, heavy manufacturing, and energy-related industries throughout the world.