Fall River Electric’s path to clean energy includes small modular reactors
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This article brought to you by Fall River Electric Cooperative, which is eastern Idaho’s only electric utility cooperative, owned by the customers it serves. Fall River Electric is committed to safely and economically provide reliable energy and other services which bring value to its membership. The Co-op was created 86 years ago and now provides reliable electricity to residential, commercial, and irrigation customers in portions of three states and covering over 2,500 square miles. We are their “trusted energy partner”!
With the recent surge in power demand in our region and our desire to provide sustainable energy for our members, it is critical that sources of carbon-free, reliable and responsible power be developed.
Recognizing some of these challenges, Fall River Electric Cooperative is proud to be part of the solution in the clean energy transformation.
In fall 2022, to help meet the Co-op’s energy goals and the power demand of our members, Fall River Electric, Energy Northwest, and sixteen other utilities in the northwest region kicked off a series of discussions and investments to help meet our collective energy needs, together contributing nearly $1 million toward the development of small modular reactors (SMRs).
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Notably, in October 2024, Energy Northwest announced its partnership with Amazon and X-energy to begin the feasibility phase of a small modular reactor project near Columbia Generating Station in Richland, Washington. Amazon’s funding will support two years of thorough and robust environmental, safety, permitting, licensing and risk analyses leading up to a request of formal approval of the project from Energy Northwest members including Fall River Electric. If approved, Energy Northwest would then apply for a construction permit.
The first project would be 320 megawatts. Energy Northwest will have the option to expand the project with another 640 MW for a total capacity of up to 960 MW. This additional power will be available to Amazon and northwest power utilities to power homes and businesses. This funding will help move the region well down the road toward deploying one of the first advanced nuclear generation plants in the country.
Fall River Electric Cooperative, which is a longtime member of Energy Northwest, is committed to providing clean energy resources for our members that can meet the clean energy challenges of the future and helping Idaho meet its climate and carbon reduction goals.
Our contribution to this project was a first step in achieving that goal.
We applaud this collaboration between Amazon and Energy Northwest as it demonstrates how public-private partnerships can accelerate progress through a shared vision and paves the way for public power entities to develop and build future SMRs to help meet the region’s growing energy demands.