KENNEWICK — Washington leaders were in Richland this week to christen the state’s new “clean energy headquarters.”
Washington State University’s new Institute for Northwest Energy Futures, or INEF, will serve as a “virtual hub” for clean energy solutions — using researchers and professors to answer and solve some of the region’s most pressing green energy challenges.
INEF’s staff of six — including Noel Schulz, the inaugural director of the program and nationally recognized expert in power systems engineering — moved into the institute’s new home in the Tri-Cities research hub in North Richland over the summer.
The university bought the 19,000-square-foot building at 2892 Pauling Ave. that now features a high-bay area, four state-of-the-art laboratories, conference spaces, offices and a community classroom.
WSU Tri-Cities Chancellor Sandra Haynes characterized Wednesday’s event as a culmination of years of hard work and “the beginning of a new era in clean energy innovation.”
About 40 percent of the state’s energy production takes place within a 100-mile radius of the Tri-Cities metro area — mostly through zero-emission solar, wind and hydroelectric generation — and the Tri-Cities is home to the Pacific Northwest’s only nuclear power plant.
The institute was the vision of late Hanford physicist Bob Ferguson, whose $500,000 donation in 2021 to endow a faculty position in energy and environment jump-started the mission to establish a first-of-its-kind hub in the Tri-Cities that would tackle the region’s growing clean energy ambitions.
Gov. Jay Inslee encouraged the state to back the fledgling institute in 2022, and during the 2023 legislative session lawmakers allocated $7.7 million to the project.
“The location in the Tri-Cities is ideal because it perfectly positions us to utilize the rich decarbonized energy resources found in our region, while also developing strategic partnerships with local industry for research and development, scalability testing, trusted analysis to guide change and readying the energy sector’s workforce,” Haynes said.
The Tri-Cities is home to the highest ratio of scientists and engineers per capita in the nation, said Inslee and university officials.
Many are doing important work at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, which will collaborate and contribute expertise to the institute.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, who also spoke at the event, called it an “exciting, new initiative for a clean energy future.”
“It is no secret that Central Washington is home to many, many sources of clean energy. And, thanks to the work here at Washington State University, our region continues to lead innovation into a clean energy future,” he said.
“The work that will be done here — I truly think — will influence not only power, but policies across the country,” he said. “It could serve as, I think, a model for other states, maybe other countries, certainly other institutions to use in implementing clean energy production and standards. And that’s pretty cool that’s happening right here in Richland, Washington.”
State Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, who championed its foundation in the Legislature, thanked fellow lawmakers and called it a “pivotal moment” in the region’s journey from Hanford nuclear site “cleanup to clean energy.”
Noel Schulz’s husband, WSU President Kirk Schulz, compared INEF’s policy and data output to that of the joint William Ruckelhaus Center, which leverages the expertise of WSU and University of Washington researchers to solve public policy issues.
“This is a community that is looking forward, not looking backwards, and wants to find ways to integrate all that together. This is the ideal place to put (INEF) and I’m glad WSU is leading,” Kirk Schulz said.
Noel Schulz said in an interview that INEF’s first big undertaking will be drafting an inventory of the university’s entire energy activities and research.
