In northeastern Oregon, nearly 9,500 acres of farmland will soon be transformed into a 1,200-megawatt solar project. State regulators approved Sunstone Solar, the nation’s largest proposed solar-plus-storage facility, last fall. Once up and running, the project will include up to 7,200 megawatt-hours of storage, and its nearly four million solar panels will produce enough clean electricity to power around 800,000 homes each year. Pine Gate Renewables, the North Carolina–based developer behind the project, touted a first-of-a-kind initiative to invest up to $11 million in local wheat farms to offset economic impacts on the region’s agriculture. Construction will begin in 2026.

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But the Oregon project is unusual in that it aims to provide up to six hours of energy storage — notably higher than most battery plants. A report last year by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory stated that more than 90 percent of storage added in 2022 had a duration of four hours or less, due to regulatory incentives and the limitations of battery technology.

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Project developers in Oregon remain optimistic that will happen even under the new Trump administration, which has threatened to eliminate clean energy incentives.

“I see nothing but positivity for the future of our industry, especially in light of load growth,” Logan Stephens of Pine Gate Renewables told Oregon Business. ​“We’ve been in this industry for a long time, and we’ve seen a lot of political dynamics. Ultimately, we feel very confident in the trajectory of solar across the country.”