ODOE at 50: Energy Facility Siting
2025 marks 50 years of Oregon Department of Energy public service. As we continue leading Oregon to a safe, equitable, clean, and sustainable future for the next 50 years (and beyond!), we’re taking time to look back and reflect on what got us here.
In 1975, following the oil crisis of the early 1970s, the Oregon Legislature created the Oregon Department of Energy. As ODOE commemorates 50 years of service, so does Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council.
The statute creating the agency and Council noted that continued growth and demand for non-renewable energy poses a serious and immediate – and future – problem. “It is essential that future generations not be left a legacy of vanished or depleted resources, resulting in massive environmental, social, and financial impact," reads the statute.
Oregon’s energy facility siting law originated with formation of the Nuclear and Thermal Energy Council in 1971. Its role was to regulate the siting of nuclear and coal-fired generating plans that had an electric generating capacity of at least 200 megawatts.
As the legislature considered a new Oregon Department of Energy, it also decided to revise its energy facility siting laws and replace the Nuclear and Thermal Energy Council with the Energy Facility Siting Council, focusing the Council beyond just nuclear and coal facilities. With that new legislation, the Oregon Department of Energy was to provide staff support for the governor-appointed Council – a role that continues today.
State Jurisdiction Renewables
Renewable energy has become the emerging focus for new state jurisdiction facilities in recent years. As of March 2025, there are nearly 10 gigawatts of state jurisdiction renewable energy facilities in operation, in construction, approved but not yet built, and under review.
This includes 212 megawatts of operational state-jurisdictional solar facilities in the state, along with 56 MW of battery storage.
200 MW of solar are currently under construction.
2,800 megawatts of solar and over 2,300 MW of battery storage have been approved by EFSC but not yet built.
4,594 megawatts – or nearly 4.6 gigawatts – of solar are currently under review by EFSC, along with nearly 4,800 MW of battery storage.
The Energy Facility Siting Council, or EFSC, is responsible for overseeing the development of large electric generating facilities, high voltage transmission lines, gas pipelines, radioactive waste disposal sites, and other projects. State-level oversight of energy facilities helps ensure that Oregon has an adequate energy supply while protecting Oregon’s environment and public safety.
A proposed energy facility must undergo a thorough review and public process, and meet the Council's siting standards to receive a site certificate. Standards cover issues such as land use, environmental effects, noise concerns, cultural and archeological artifacts, and much more. If the Council approves a site certificate, the developer is authorized to construct and operate the facility. After issuing a site certificate, the Council has ongoing regulatory authority and compliance activities for the construction, operation, and decommissioning of the facility.
One of the first facilities approved by EFSC in 1975 was the 550-megawatt Boardman Coal Plant in Morrow County. It was completed and placed into service in 1980. Forty years later, the plant closed and was demolished in 2022. The first renewable energy project approved by EFSC was in 1979 – a 40-megawatt wind facility in Curry County – but the facility was never constructed. Two decades later, EFSC approved the Stateline Wind Project in Umatilla County in 2001, which became the first state jurisdiction constructed wind facility.
Today, the Energy Facility Siting Council and Oregon Department of Energy oversee more than 90 state-jurisdiction facilities – including facilities under review, operating, in construction, decommissioned, withdrawn or terminated, or exempt from the EFSC process. Proposed projects currently under review are mostly solar facilities – a fairly recent trend we’re seeing after EFSC approved its first state-jurisdiction solar facility in 2018.
Learn more about energy facility siting in Oregon and how to get involved on our website.