Rising tension in central WA as farmland is eyed for energy and data center projects

Klickitat County is covered by rolling hills of hay production, vineyards and grazing livestock. But the county, which is roughly the size of Delaware and has about 24,300 residents, is also an epicenter in the region’s battles over clean energy facilities and more recently, data centers. 

County officials have been working on a policy to guide development of solar and large-scale battery storage projects and specifically how those are balanced against agriculture. 

“If the proposal is on what’s considered prime agricultural land that is highly productive, then it’ll be encouraged not to use those lands,” said Planning Director Scott Edelman.

There is a preference to support agrivoltaics projects, which means land would host solar panels and simultaneously be used for farming. The cost is generally higher for developers. Additionally, the policy would set guidelines for how close these projects could be to neighboring residents’ land and the allowed noise level.

River Turn and Make Energy Right

As the county irons out its policy, a proposed power facility now in the queue is the River Turn Energy Center. It was initially proposed as an 800-megawatt solar facility and 800-megawatt battery energy storage system on Klickitat’s eastern border, where the cropland is considered exceptionally poor.  

A new website for the project shows it could involve up to 1,050 megawatts of solar generation accompanied by an 800-megawatt battery storage facility. 

Savion Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of Shell Energy, is developing River Turn. If built, it would be one of the larger solar facilities in the Pacific Northwest. Documents show the company secured 4,700 acres for the project via a long-term lease with five separate landowners.

Previously, Savion has been at odds with the county over its solar ordinance, calling the draft one of the most restrictive policies of its kind in the country. 

The company argued it would push developers to seek approval from Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, instead of at the local level. Since then, local officials have revised the policy to be less restrictive. 

It’s against this backdrop that the Facebook posts have begun popping up.

Records and information on social media reveal that Make Energy Right Klickitat is working with Savion to lobby landowners to submit comments in support of land use policies favored by developers. The goal is to build solar facilities on agricultural land. 

Views on this are mixed locally, as above-market lease payments can provide a financial lifeline for farmers.

“Farm owners who lease to solar are likely to retire on the solar rent check,” said Matt Chiles, a large landowner in Centerville, a small town in Klickitat. He has been approached by solar companies willing to buy his land outright for $10,000 an acre.

“Given that only about half of my land might be suitable for solar, they are essentially willing to pay $20,000 per acre for good solar production land,” Chiles added. In comparison, an acre of wheat crop on productive soil is worth around $50.

Questions about data center plans

There’s speculation that electricity generated from the River Turn Energy Center will be used for a data center. Shell Energy’s director of regulatory affairs, Greg Macdonald, declined to answer questions on whether that is the case. “I’m sure you understand,” Macdonald added.

A California-based company called AMAUTA Public Affairs is behind the Make Energy Right Klickitat campaign. It’s part of a broader Make Energy Right initiative the firm is overseeing. “We Don’t Just Understand Energy Projects. We Know How to Get Them Approved,” AMAUTA says on its website. 

Ignacio Barragan, the firm’s founder, said in an email that AMAUTA is a member of Renewable Northwest — an energy advocacy organization based in Portland. He said Make Energy Right began because “friends and colleagues across the country shared frustration about the lack of platforms in the energy sector that championed an all-of-the-above strategy in support of America’s energy independence.”

Renewable Northwest presses for clean energy projects in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Asked about those projects supplying power to data centers, Emily Butterfield, communications manager for the group, said: “We can’t and don’t want to direct how energy is used.” 

Jeff Watson, senior development manager with Savion, said the company has worked with Barragan on “early-stage projects across multiple markets.” In a 2025 public comment to Klickitat County, Watson also listed himself as a “landowner advocate” with both Savion and AMAUTA. 

When asked questions about the River Turn solar facility, both Watson and Mitchell Taylor, Savion’s vice president of development, were hesitant to provide details, even walking back statements made in a public meeting early 2025, which Taylor said was only an “early threshold discussion with community leaders.”

He added that the size and scope of the proposed facility has not been finalized and “rather than share information that could ultimately prove inaccurate, we believe it is best to wait until those details are more clearly established.”

Watson added that Savion “remains committed to being transparent” and that the company “has not changed our long-term interest in responsibly exploring this project.”

In the meantime, the county’s planning department is awaiting legal review from an outside consulting attorney on the ordinance. It may be ready for a public hearing in September. An exact approval date is unknown.