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Central Oregon Emerges as a State Leader in Utility Solar Energy Production by Michael Kohn Capital Press, December 6, 2023

Oregon has long been known as a renewable energy powerhouse, thanks mainly to its giant hydro dams on the Columbia River and massive wind farms in Eastern Oregon. But the state is quietly growing in another carbon-free and renewable source of energy -- light from the sun.

Solar projects are flaring up across the state, especially east of the Cascades where there's abundant sunshine and flat, open land. Southern Oregon has a lead in solar development, but the state's central counties have also built up a steady supply of solar projects.

Harnessing the sun's energy will help Oregon meet its ambitious climate action goals, including carbon neutrality, by 2040. If it all goes as planned, your appliances, devices and maybe your car could soon be charged by renewable energy, a portion of which may come from the nearest solar farm.

Central Oregon's solar energy production

Crook County produces the lion's share of solar energy in Central Oregon. Last year the county generated 333,653 megawatt hours of energy. That is just 8% below Lake County, which produced 362,140 megawatt hours of energy from its solar farms, the largest in Oregon.

A megawatt hour is one megawatt of electricity being consumed for one hour.

Crook County's three largest solar farms range in size from 40 to 60 megawatts, making them among the five biggest solar farms in the state. One of them, the Prineville Solar Energy project, helps to power Meta's massive data center campus in Prineville.

Deschutes and Jefferson counties have also experienced steady growth in the solar energy field. Together they have six solar farms of 10 megawatts each.

Central Oregon is not alone in its wealth of 10-megawatt solar farms -- altogether the state has 28 such solar plants, according to Oregon Department of Energy data.

This size solar facility was favored by developers participating in the Oregon Solar Development Program administered by Business Oregon between 2016 and 2018. The program provided an incentive payment for projects up to 10 megawatts in size.

"These projects are apparent when filtering by year on the Oregon solar dashboard," said Jennifer Kalez, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Energy. "You can see a major uptick in development in 2016 to 2018."

Central Oregon's completed projects could be joined in the future by the Madras Solar Energy Facility in Jefferson County. That project will have a maximum output capacity of 63 megawatts and will occupy 284 acres west of the Madras Airport. The project makes sense for the area because it sits along a 230-volt transmission line owned by Portland General Electric.

Oregon's total solar production

Utility-scale solar energy production in Oregon has made big gains in recent years, jumping more than 7,600% since 2015. Oregon's 2022 biennial energy report said the state has a maximum output capacity of 726 megawatts, although that figure is already higher with the commissioning of several large power plants this year.

New power plants include Gilliam County's Pachwaywit project. This 162-megawatt facility is nearly three times larger than the Millican Solar Energy facility in Crook County, which previously held the top spot in Oregon. Lake County is another important player in solar power. Its 47-megawatt Airport Solar plant is currently the fourth largest in the state.

The energy produced by these facilities is fed into the grid where it joins power generated by wind turbines, hydropower dams, nuclear and coal-fired power plants. Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp and smaller utilities then deliver energy through the grid to end users.

"Facilities develop power purchase agreements that outline where the power goes -- sometimes directly for a business, other times onto electric utilities' grids," said Kalez. "Most of the energy likely goes to PGE or Pacific Power, but we don't track the facilities' specific contracts, which can change year over year."

What do solar producers look for?

Dustin Shively, an Oregon State University instructor specializing in renewable energy, said in addition to low-cost land, another factor is the land's proximity to transmission lines to move power into towns and cities.

"By and large, (Central Oregon) is kind of open, desert and prairie land, and it's flat," said Shively. "On a solar project, flat and boring wins out every time over hills, trees, rocks and complex cities."

Kalez said it's difficult to predict where Central Oregon goes from here in terms of its growth in solar projects. The approval process is lengthy and not all projects are approved.

"While some projects go into construction very quickly after approval, others do not," said Kalez. For example, the first large-scale solar project that completed the state of Oregon's facility review process was approved in February 2018 but has not yet started construction.

Kalez anticipates the percentage of solar power in Oregon's energy mix to increase in the coming years as the state pursues a plan to be entirely dependent on clean energy by 2040.

Future projects

Several projects currently in development could soon push Oregon's solar output even higher than today's levels, which will help to reduce Oregon's reliance on nonrenewable energy plants.

The 400-megawatt Obsidian Solar Center in Lake County near Fort Rock will likely be the largest in the state when it's finished in 2024 or 2025. The Archway Solar Energy Facility, also in the Fort Rock-Christmas Valley area, is also planned to have a 400-megawatt maximum output capacity. That project is still in the proposed stage and not yet approved.

Bigger still is the 1,250-megawatt Sunstone Solar Project planned for Morrow County in Northeast Oregon. If this project does get built, it will be double the size of California's Solar Star project, currently the biggest solar farm in the U.S. at 579 megawatts, large enough to provide electricity to around 255,000 households.