The developer planning a wind farm in the Horse Heaven Hills had already intended to scale back the number of turbines before the state recently restricted the project over nesting concerns for endangered ferruginous hawks.

The revised plan now calls for fewer turbines, but ones that are taller, with larger blades, and potentially located closer to the Tri-Cities.

Scout Clean Energy filed applications with the Federal Aviation Administration in August to install 141 turbines with a maximum blade height of 671 feet, withdrawing earlier applications for 220 turbines with a max height of 499 feet.

For comparison, the proposed new turbines’ height is taller than the Seattle Space Needle, which is 605 feet tall.

The change is the result of various factors, from manufacturers prioritizing taller turbines due to market demand to wanting to do what is needed to meet the power generation target for the Horse Heaven Hills Energy Complex, said Dave Kobus, a senior project manager with Scout.

“We contemplated this when we filed the original application,” Kobus said, adding “the ferruginous hawk mitigation has caused us to reconsider where we’re going to put turbines.”

Call for more review

It’s a move that has a Tri-Cities nonprofit – one of several entities suing to stop the wind farm from being built – calling on the state to reevaluate the environmental and aesthetic impacts of the project as turbines of that height were reportedly not part of recent discussion and study.

“We don’t know how accurate all the environmental review can be if this wasn’t considered,” said Paul Presari of Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S.

The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) approved the project in November 2024, after former Gov. Jay Inslee rejected an initial approval which required the project to be scaled back.

Company officials have said the project will create an expected 1,000 jobs during construction, generate 1,150 megawatts of power and contribute more than $250 million in local tax revenues throughout its 35-year operating lifespan.

The Yakama Nation, Benton County commissioners and Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S. have challenged EFSEC’s decision, alleging Inslee, state agencies and the courts violated everything from state environmental protection laws to local land use planning regulations while limiting access to proceedings related to the decision.

Their joint lawsuit is currently awaiting a court date with the Washington State Supreme Court after the case was forwarded to the higher court by a Thurston County Superior Court judge.

More recently, in an Oct. 15 hearing, EFSEC approved Scout’s plan to build primary project components of the energy project within two miles of all but five endangered ferruginous hawk nests on the site, closer than allowed in the original certification agreement for the project. That decision was based on environmental reviews conducted by an appointed Preoperational Technical Advisory Group, or PTAG.

Scout told EFSEC in response to a draft version of the final decision that not being able to build closer to the five hawk nests would eliminate nearly 200 megawatts of power-generating capacity, among other adjustments to planned infrastructure.

Courtesy Scout Energy

The new proposal

Two days after the Oct. 15 decision, Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S. learned of Scout’s new applications for taller turbines, with some being sited in new locations along Kiona Ridge, near Energy Northwest’s Nine Canyon Wind Farm and Johnson Butte south of the Tri-Cities.

Along with being taller, those turbines will have much longer blades that would take up more space in the air as well as require more ground clearance. And there’s no indication from documents from EFSEC or PTAG that turbines of that height were part of discussions, according to Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S.

“I think by bringing these new turbines and new corridors I think they’ve reopened (review under the State Environmental Policy Act),” said Dave Sharp, a wind industry expert working with the nonprofit.

Scout’s Kobus said that isn’t the case. The site certificate for the project allowed for turbines of up to 671 feet. Those taller turbines will generate nearly twice as much power as the originally conceived 499-foot-tall turbines – and this is where the wind energy market is headed.

“We knew that the manufacturers are intending to retool for the main product line they’re selling in the Midwest, which are the larger platforms,” he said.

And just as taller turbines were permitted under the state’s certificate, so were adjustments of where the turbines would be located.

Kobus said the company is making every effort to stick to the corridors already established for the project. The locations noted in the FAA turbine applications are likely to change as Scout works out where best to build them while complying with EFSEC’s decisions, including the recent decision protecting ferruginous hawk nests.

“It should surprise nobody, with losing as much as we did around the ferruginous hawk nests,” Kobus said. “We have to look at our options.”

And while the new turbines are bigger, they don’t impact how PTAG reached its recommendations to EFSEC on environmental impacts, Kobus said.

Karl Holappa, an EFSEC spokesperson, told the Journal that the taller turbines are permitted under Scout’s site certificate for the project. EFSEC staff and PTAG also are continuing to look at how the project could impact other species and require mitigation.

This graphic shows the height difference of the proposed taller turbines compared to the existing Nine Canyon turbines southeast of Kennewick.

| Courtesy Tri-Cities C.A.R.E.S.

Pending lawsuits

Sharp acknowledged that Scout “had an option for taller turbines. Nobody dreamed they were going to do it.” Presari added that such material alterations to the project make it even more urgent that the state halt the project, at least until the lawsuits are resolved.

Kobus said some elements of the project are moving ahead, with the western end of the complex, which includes Webber Canyon, starting construction before the end of 2025. But the eastern portion, which includes much of the wind energy generating capacity, is stalled while it is being legally challenged.

Kobus said Scout is hopeful those legal challenges can be resolved by mid-2026.

“We can’t move forward with anything until we have an unappealable decision,” he said.

But that may not be the only decision Scout may have to wait on.

In early December, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, sent a letter to the FAA requesting the agency re-examine the potential airspace impacts from the project, which he said Inslee ignored. It remains unclear if FAA will move on that request.

“There remains a great deal of concern about its impact on safe and reliable air operations,” he wrote in his letter. “I believe a rigorous re-examination of the prior determination of no hazard is essential to properly and accurately assess this project’s impact on the community.”