Published 8:46 am Thursday, April 2, 2026
By Don Jenkins
Scout Clean Energy claims in a court filing that the Horse Heaven wind and solar project would equal the output of a large coal or natural gas power plant, a disputed claim never examined by regulators.
With batteries, the 1,150-megawatt installation in Benton County, Wash., would supply power even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, the company stated in a brief to the Washington Supreme Court.
“At that scale, the project could replace a large fossil-fuel fired facility,” the brief reads.
Benton County PUD manager Rick Dunn said Scout’s project won’t be an adequate substitute for a fossil fuel plant, even with batteries. Windmills, the project’s largest part, likely will make little or no electricity on some winter days, he said.
“You can’t get rid of the fossil fuel plant. What do you do on the coldest mornings?” Dunn said. “A wind farm can never replace the controllable capacity of a coal plant.”
Scout has a permit to build on Horse Heaven hills in southeast Washington, but must, along with the state, defend the project at a Supreme Court hearing June 11.
The Yakama Nation, Benton County commissioners and Tri-City CARES allege that then-Gov. Jay Inslee overstepped his authority in approving the project.
In a process that took several years, the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council studied potential impacts to views, noise, traffic, wildlife, agriculture, socioeconomics and tribal culture.
It didn’t, however, evaluate the project’s projected output of electricity or its projected output during peak hours, when energy planners say the Northwest is at risk of power shortages.
“We tried to get that data, and we were foreclosed from doing that,” Tri-City CARES attorney Richard Aramburu said.
“We wanted to talk about the need issue, the capacity issue,” he said. “We really wanted to see if it was true that this project was going to justify all the damage it was doing.”
At 1,150-megawatts, the Horse Heaven project would have a larger maximum potential output than any of the state’s natural gas plants. But the Western Power Pool estimates that windmills in Washington operate at only 5.5% of their potential during peak-demand hours in January, typically the coldest month of the year.
Scout declined to comment for this story. The company emphasized to the Supreme Court the project’s maximum capacity and ability to supply power with batteries.
“That reliability is what makes the project useful to the local electrical grid,” the company stated.
Utilities won’t be able to count on Horse Heaven in the winter, Dunn said. The project can be expected to generate more electricity in the spring, but that’s when hydro power peaks, he said.
“What they’re contributing to is an energy glut,” Dunn said. “We don’t need this wind farm in the Tri-Cities at all.”
The project will span 72,000 acres of leased farmland. Washington is turning to carbon-free energy because of climate change, according to the Washington attorney general’s office.
“The transition requires the development of clean energy facilities, such as wind and solar, on a scale that demands considerable space in rural areas,” its brief states.
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