Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in Washington
21 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in Washington, listed by former capacity. Each carries an existing utility-scale grid interconnection that a new datacenter load may be able to re-use.
At a glance
What kinds of former sites are in Washington?
By former use, the list includes 8 hydroelectric, 5 biomass, 3 natural gas, 2 coal, 2 oil, 1 landfill. Recorded retirement dates run from August 2001 to September 2022, with 7 retirements in 2015 or later. 19 of 20 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does Washington compare with other states?
Washington ranks 34th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (2,577 MW) it ranks 31st, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 6,019 scored datacenter candidate sites, 8 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 51.7 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in Washington are these sites?
- Clallam County · 3
- King County · 3
- Grant County · 2
- Pierce County · 2
- Snohomish County · 2
- Lewis County · 1
- Cowlitz County · 1
- Chelan County · 1
- Skagit County · 1
- Klickitat County · 1
- Pend Oreille County · 1
- Jefferson County · 1
- Whitman County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in Washington
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transalta Centralia Generation | coal | 1,052 MW | 2020-12-01 | Lewis |
| Wanapum | hydro | 1,038 MW | 2019-08-01 | Grant |
| Longview Fibre | gas | 90 MW | 2018-06-01 | Cowlitz |
| White River (WA) | hydro | 70 MW | 2004-01-01 | Pierce |
| Steam plant | biomass | 50 MW | 2005-12-01 | Pierce |
| Diesel Generator Farm | oil | 48 MW | 2001-08-01 | Chelan |
| Everett Cogen | biomass | 42 MW | 2011-10-01 | Snohomish |
| Randolph Road | oil | 32 MW | 2007-10-01 | Grant |
| SPI - Everett | biomass | 28 MW | — | Snohomish |
| HF Sinclair Puget Sound Refining | gas | 27 MW | 2015-06-01 | Skagit |
| McKinley Paper Co. - Washington Mill | biomass | 20 MW | 2017-04-01 | Clallam |
| Glines Hydroelectric Project | hydro | 16 MW | 2011-06-01 | Clallam |
| Condit | hydro | 14 MW | 2011-10-01 | Klickitat |
| Elwha Hydroelectric Project | hydro | 13 MW | 2011-06-01 | Clallam |
| Snoqualmie 2 | hydro | 10 MW | 2010-06-01 | King |
| Sullivan CR | hydro | 9 MW | — | Pend Oreille |
| Port Townsend Paper | biomass | 6 MW | 2016-04-01 | Jefferson |
| Snoqualmie | hydro | 6 MW | 2010-04-01 | King |
| University of Washington Power Plant | gas | 5 MW | 2022-09-01 | King |
| Washington State University | coal | 2 MW | 2005-05-01 | Whitman |
| Vashon Recycling and Transfer Station Solar Project | landfill | 0 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in Washington?
GridCensus lists 20 retired power plant sites in Washington from EIA-860 retirement records. 18 have a recorded retirement date, 7 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in Washington?
Transalta Centralia Generation in Centralia is the largest by recorded capacity, at 1,051.9 MW. It is followed by Wanapum (1,038 MW) and Longview Fibre (90 MW).
Which power plant in Washington retired most recently?
University of Washington Power Plant has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, September 2022, with 5 MW of capacity.
Which county in Washington has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Clallam County has the most, with 3, followed by King County with 3.
How many EPA brownfield sites in Washington have completed cleanup?
1 of the 1 EPA-tracked sites listed for Washington are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on Washington, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in Washington· 6,019 sites
- Electric substations in Washington· 785 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in Rhode Island· 21 sites
- Brownfield sites in Utah· 20 sites
- Brownfield sites in Alabama· 21 sites
- Brownfield sites in Hawaii· 16 sites
About this data
Source: EIA-860 retired generating units and EPA RE-Powering America's Land contaminated-site records, as published March 6, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield and retired power plant sites in Washington”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/washington (data as of March 6, 2026).
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for brownfield sites in Washington is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.