As data centers increasingly dominate conversations around the country, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and two partners have published a one-stop shop to help guide development. 

Umatilla Electric Cooperative in Hermiston is one of six utilities across Washington and Oregon that have absorbed the bulk of energy demands of data centers in the region. A growing number of utilities are using booming data center demand to justify skirting climate rules in both states that mostly ban the build-out of new gas infrastructure, citing the need for regional energy reliability. 

A state agency has awarded $2.4 million to support 16 new electric vehicle charging slots across three sites in Benton County. 

Supporters of a Goldendale pumped-hydro energy storage project have said it will help meet growing regional energy demand, and the project developers tout its potential to one day power up to half a million homes without sending harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. But mounting evidence shows a large data center campus could be among the main beneficiaries of that power. 

Bonneville Power Administration’s financial performance is a mixed bag at the halfway point of its fiscal year but its leaders say the agency is still on track to meet most of its end-of-year targets. 

Framatome is one of a handful of companies that will receive federal funding to build out fuel production for the next generation of nuclear power reactors, and that money is coming directly to its Richland plant. 

The Trump administration’s proposed cuts to Hanford cleanup funding is drawing backlash from Washington officials, unions and watchdog groups, despite DOE assurances that critical work will continue uninterrupted.

The debate over salmon recovery and hydropower in the Northwest has shifted into a broader fight over grid reliability and cost, with critics arguing that reducing hydropower without reliable replacements risks worsening already strained electricity supply and sharply increasing prices for customers.

A new jobs website aggregates job postings from every prime Hanford site contractor and other energy-adjacent employers such as Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Energy Northwest and Framatome.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy recently awarded a $1.4 million grant to WSU to develop a Reactor Ready Training Program to address workforce gaps in the nuclear industry.