Chelan, Douglas, Grant PUD’s to Host Clean Energy EXPO

The three Mid-Columbia PUD's will host an event highlighting energy technologies that can build on the region's hydropower resources and enhance a clean energy into the future.

The Clean Energy Expo will be held Thursday, Dec. 14th in the Wenatchee Convention Center from 2p.m. to 6p.m. Admission is free.

Chelan PUD Senior Communications Strategist Rachel Hansen said the the Mid-Columbia River Public Utilities are hosting the Expo because "we're trying to envision 50 years down the road what is our electrical grid going to look like? And so we want our customers to learn about some of these opportunities".  Attendees can fill out a survey so the PUD's can gauge interest in what customer rate payers are excited about and want the utilities to explore as possible energy sources in North Central Washington.

Visitors to the Expo can see and learn more about 10 technologies that could be utilized or are already present in the region;

• Solar
• Hydrogen
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell
• Gravity Storage
• Wind
• Battery Storage
• Compressed Gas
• Fission
• Fusion
• Pumped Storage

Brett Bickford, Chelan PUD's Managing Dir. of Generation and Transmission said he is excited for the public to see and hear from about a dozen of the world's leading technology companies at the Expo.  "What's going to be really neat is there's some more concepts of how to use gravity. There will be some companies coming that will show how we can use river flow to move large weights made out of earth, concrete or steel up the hill.  They rest at the top of the hill until they're needed and then gravity pulls the weight back down the hill to turn a motor generator and create electricity when it's needed".

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Hansen says the three Mid Columbia PUD's or Mid-C's are hosting this event in part, because of the Clean Energy Transformation Act of 2019. It resulted in some of the most aggressive clean energy goals in the nation for Washington State, according to Hansen. By 2025, coal will no longer be used to serve Washington customers and by 2030 the state's electricity supply will be greenhouse gas neutral. Between 25% to 1/3 of the state's electrical supply will have to be replaced with renewable resources. Hansen says that makes North Central Washington the right region to be having those conversations.

For more information, visit Chelan PUD.org