Big plans for WSU Tri-Cities. Legislature will be asked for $10M for a new energy center

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has big plans for Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland to become a center recognized globally for its innovation in developing clean energy sources and technology.

He will ask the state Legislature this year for $10 million to launch the new Institute for Northwest Energy Futures at WSU Tri-Cities, he announced during a Monday visit to the Richland campus.

“The world has to invent new fossil-free methods of energy, and it is going to look right here at the WSU Institute for Northwest Energy Futures,” he said.

The Tri-Cities is the perfect place for the institute, given what WSU Tri-Cities says is the Tri-Cities’ highest ratio of scientists and engineers per capita in the nation, Inslee said.

Many of them are employed at WSU Tri-Cities and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, which will collaborate and contribute its expertise to the institute.

The state already relies on the 100-mile radius area of the Tri-Cities to produce 40% of its power.

About 90% of Washington’s total wind generation capacity is within 125 miles of the Tri-Cities and the Tri-Cities area has the Pacific Northwest’s only nuclear power plant, plus solar and wind generation.

“Governor, you’ve come to the right place,” said WSU Tri-Cities Chancellor Sandra Haynes.

The sky is the limit for research and the potential to grow new clean industries at the WSU Tri-Cities institute, Inslee said.

The institute also will help educate the next generation of clean energy experts, preparing them for high paying jobs.

WA lawmakers’ support needed

Inslee said he was cautiously optimistic about legislative support for the institute because it is “so in keeping with the basic DNA of the state of Washington of recognizing the power of R&D,” he said.

A $10 million appropriation would launch the new institute with eight to 10 new professors in the next one to two years. Now WSU has just under 100 full-time professors.

WSU Tri-Cities could purchase some nearby laboratory space to help accommodate the new institute, Haynes said.

The first step toward the new institute was the vision of the late Bob Ferguson of Richland and his $500,000 donation in 2021 to endow a faculty position in energy and environment.

WSU Tri-Cities describes its new institute as an applied research center to help address the increasing demand for low-carbon electricity and transportation fuels, and other resilient, safe and affordable energy systems.

It also will take a broader look at managing the complexities and inter-relationships among emerging energy technologies, economics, natural resources and the policies needed for a low carbon energy future, it said.

The institute “will help inform the evolution of a new energy economy,” Haynes said.

Combined with the scientific capacity already in place in the Tri-Cities, it should be highly attractive to top flight scientists and faculty using public and private funding, she said.

“That’s big bang for the buck that drives our economy and improves the lives of Washingtonians and beyond,” she said.

The institute is an example of each WSU campus focusing on areas important to their communities, said Kirk Schulz, WSU president, during the governor’s visit.

‘Clean up to clean energy’

The new institute will address issues, such as the true cost from production to recycling of technologies and the impact on the environment and the community, he said.

It will look at how to better predict energy demand and consumption patterns. And it will investigate the social impacts, from well-being to equity, of different energy technology choices, he said.

The Tri-City Development Council is seeing more companies interested in moving to the Tri-Cities after the passage of the federal legislation, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, said Karl Dye, TRIDEC president.

The area lacks enough green, affordable power for them, but the new institute with its systems approach to clean energy generation could provide solutions, Dye said.

The Tri-Cities has an opportunity to transition from “cleanup to clean energy,” said Sen.-elect Matt Boehnke, referring to the environmental cleanup of the Hanford nuclear reservation site, which now provides a major underpinning to the Tri-Cities economy.

But cleanup of Hanford, which produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program through the Cold War, needs to be completed, he said, and the community move forward.

“Do we want to be known as the center of the universe for energy? Yes,” Boehnke said.

The appetite in the academic community to build a clean energy future is unparalleled because people understand how urgent it is, the governor said.

“This is the central challenge of humanity,” he said. “There has never been a challenge in human history like this and there has never been (such) an opportunity for new technologies, as well.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 2:55 PM.