Invenergy, GCPUD break ground for new solar energy facility

MOSES LAKE — A ceremonial groundbreaking earlier this month marked the construction start of a solar energy project by a private firm, Invenergy, in collaboration with the Grant County PUD, that is expected to produce 120 megawatts of clean, renewable power by the end of 2027.

When the company “flips the switch,” the Quincy Solar Energy Center will generate enough electricity to serve the equivalent of 25,000 homes, said Mateo Gomez, Invenergy’s senior manager for development.

Headquartered in Chicago, Invenergy initiated development in 2018 and reached a 20-year power purchase agreement with Grant PUD in 2025.

Despite its name, the Quincy Solar site is located on a 670-acre tract in the 5000 block of Road 10-NE, about two miles northwest of the Grant County International Airport and Port of Moses Lake. Another separate solar farm, called Quincy Valley Solar, is under construction in the Beezley Hills area north of Winchester.

The distinction led to some good-natured banter between state Sen. Judy Warnick of Moses Lake and state Rep. Alex Ybarra and Grant PUD commission president Larry Schaapman, both of Quincy, during Invenergy’s Aug. 18 groundbreaking ceremony.

“It’s Moses Lake, actually,” said Warnick. Responded Ybarra, “I’m from Quincy; I love the name.”

Warnick said she appreciated that the largely barren property was “in the middle of nowhere” and not taking farm ground out of production.

Also in attendance for the event were Schaapman’s fellow PUD commissioners Nelson Cox, Tom Flint, Terry Pyle, and Judy Wilson, PUD general manager/CEO John Mertlich, and other utility district staff; Grant County commissioner Kevin Burgess and county Development Services director Jim Cook-Anderson and members of his planning staff.

Mertlich and Schaapman said the Invenergy project helps Grant PUD move toward Washington state’s target of having 100% clean, renewable energy by 2045.

Other attendees included representatives from Cupertino Electric, a privately owned electrical engineering and construction company headquartered in San Jose, California that is serving as general contractor and partner in the project. Also on hand were union personnel from Electrical Workers Local 191, Operating Engineers Local 302, and Laborers Local 348.

“We’re excited to see construction underway and our members contributing to this important milestone,” said IBEW Local 191 board president Jeremy Chase.

Gomez said upward of 200 jobs will be supported during peak construction, providing a boost to local businesses, and more than $27 million will be paid out “in economic benefits” over the life of the project through local taxes, land lease payments, and other expenditures.

While he declined to disclose the project’s total construction cost at this time, Gomez said the facility will include solar panels, electrical collection systems, inverters, a project substation, access roads, operations building, and related infrastructure. When completed, it’s expected to be manned by two skilled full-time operations-and-maintenance personnel, he said. 

Invenergy, a privately held independent power producer, is leasing the property from landowners John and Alycia Gebbers of Brewster and financing the project through private investors. Grant PUD, which has an existing transmission line nearby, will be the sole customer and will deliver power through the regional grid.

“We are happy to be takers of it,” said Schaapman.

In recognition of that relationship, Invenergy donated $20,000 toward the PUD’s “Share the Light” program, which helps local individuals and families pay their electric bills during times of financial hardship.

Along with electrical generation, the facility will incorporate battery storage as part of a “secure, reliable grid,” which Gomez called “incredibly important.”

“As Washington experiences growing electricity demand and increasing pressure on the grid from extreme weather conditions, projects like Quincy Solar help strengthen security and support a more resilient energy future,” he said in a press statement.

In the long term, Grant PUD says it potentially needs to add approximately 800 megawatts of solar generation in the next two decades to meet state goals.

Last October, the utility district similarly entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with San Francisco-based Clearway Energy Group, which is developing the Royal Slope Energy Center for a 260-megawatt solar and 260-megawatt battery energy storage facility near Vantage. That project is also expected to be operational in late 2027.

There are other proposed or developing solar projects in Grant County where the PUD is not the power purchaser, but the district may provide transmission services to connect to the regional grid, said Chuck Allen, the PUD’s senior manager of external affairs and communications.

To supplement generation from its two hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River, Grant PUD is also among regional utilities researching other potential alternative energy sources including geothermal-turbine power, modular nuclear reactor technology, and in the short term, the use of natural gas generators during energy shortfalls such as prolonged cold or hot spells.

Ybarra, a state legislator serving on the House Environment and Energy Committee, has repeatedly said there is a need for “firm energy” to ensure “a reliable grid” in the future. Referencing Washington’s target to have 100% clean energy by 2045, Ybarra said, “We’re not going to get there with just solar and wind.”