Helion Energy Submits Permits to Chelan County for Construction

Helion Energy submits permit applications to the Chelan County Community Development department to build on a portion of the Chelan County PUD's Rock Island Dam property.

Everett-based Helion, a company focused on generating fusion power, is interested in constructing an office building, assembly building and generator building at the site.

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Meanwhile, the PUD announces it is negotiating a comprehensive lease agreeement with the company. The PUD says their goal is to potentially diversify into new sources of carbon-free energy.

Helion Communication Director Jessie Barton said they are hopeful they can break ground this summer and generate fusion-powered energy by 2028.

"We did file building permits with the county," Barton said. "Ultimately all kind of parts of steps and finalizing the selection of any potential site, putting in permits and waiting for approval going through the due dilligence process before we start construction."

Initially, energy created by the fusion plant would service a power purchasing agreement with Microsoft to serve their data centers. The PUD hopes the power Helion provides to Microsoft will relieve some of the load the PUD offers to the software company's data centers.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of Generation and Transmission for Chelan PUD Brett Bickford gave an update at the PUD's regular meeting Monday.

"We're [wanting to] make sure this potential project is neutral to positive for all of our customers," Bickford said. "We also see this as an opportunity to diversify out energy resources and preserve local control."

After negotiations finish, chelan PUD staff will present the proposed terms of a lease agreement to the Board of Commissioners for consideration. An agreement intended to secure future access to fusion energy will also be negotiated and brought to commissioners.

Chelan PUD and Helion are working toward an interconnection agreement - a required process of any company wanting to connect to the transmission system.

Meanwhile, the community has an opportunity to ask Helion and the PUD questions at two events. The first is today from 2-7 p.m. at Malaga Fire Department, and 2-7 p.m. Thursday, May 8 at the Visit Wenatchee Visitor Center & Tasting Room.