Inside a cavernous building in Cashmere, Wash., workers pressed thousands of tons of local apples and pears into Tree Top juices every year. But after more than four decades, operations came to a halt in 2008 thanks to a shortage of juice-grade fruit and competition from China.
Cashmere, a picturesque town of 3,200 on the Wenatchee River in Central Washington, had little use for the massive industrial space until years later when a tech-driven, mealworm-growing enterprise discovered it.
Last year Beta Hatch opened its 50,000-square-foot flagship facility in the former Tree Top space, touted by the company as “one of the largest insect production farms of its kind in the world.”
The startup taking root in Cashmere is one of many burgeoning climate and clean tech companies landing in Washington’s rural towns and smaller cities, energizing their economies and providing good paying jobs. That includes companies building batteries, developing clean aviation, capturing carbon, producing hydrogen fuel, and greening the food system.
Much of the sector’s growth is traceable to state and national climate policies, including the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, that restrict carbon emissions and fund climate solutions.
In a somewhat ironic twist, most of the smaller, rural communities where climate tech companies are setting up shop lean conservative politically — perhaps even opposing the policies that drove the job creation.
It seems in this case that red, blue and green are blending harmoniously, and communities are welcoming the environmental businesses.
“I have yet to encounter somebody saying, ‘We don’t want these jobs because of where they came from,'” Brian Young, the climate and clean tech lead for the Washington State Department of Commerce.
In Cashmere, the farming community appreciates Beta Hatch’s operations regardless of how they intersect with climate regulations. The facility is taking apple cores and other fruit waste to feed the mealworms, which are being grown as a low-carbon-footprint, protein-rich food for livestock and pets. Additionally, the waste from the worms is turned into fertilizer, bringing the cycle full circle.
Virginia Emery, Beta Hatch founder and CEO, intentionally set out to create an eco-friendly operation. The facility is entirely powered by clean energy. In the winter it also uses waste heat from a nearby crypto-mining operation to warm the growing mealworms.
“The whole thing is really set up on recycling and repurposing everything,” said Cashmere Mayor Jim Fletcher. “Anybody in an agricultural community gets it.”
Why choose rural
Just as Cashmere offered numerous benefits to Beta Hatch, which originally launched in Seattle, other rural locales provide significant perks to climate and clean tech ventures, drawing them out of urban hubs and into smaller towns.
Those incentives include:
Clean power: Hydropower dams in Eastern Washington generate clean, cheap, reliable power to keep costs and carbon emissions down. Douglas County’s utility, for example, is constructing a hydrogen fuel plant in East Wenatchee where it can tap into the Wells Hydroelectric Project.
Repurposing infrastructure: Facilities formerly used for fruit juice to fossil fuel energy are being reimagined. A focal area is the state’s last coal plant, which is located in Centralia and will shut down in 2025. Fusion company Zap Energy and green hydrogen producer Fortescue Future Industries are both exploring the southwest Washington site for operations.
Access to organics: Businesses using organic waste materials want to be close to timber or farming. That includes startups turning timber waste into biochar or converting dairy or municipal waste into hydrogen or other low-carbon fuels. Ag-tech companies often seek locations near their customers.
Labor talent: Smaller cities can harbor skilled labor such as former workers in fossil fuels or manufacturing jobs, skills that can apply to climate tech roles. And there are climate-related academic hubs outside of the Seattle area. A prime spot is Washington’s Tri-Cities, home to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington State University’s recently launched energy institute.
Kettle Falls, a town of less than 2,000 in northeastern Washington, offered multiple resources for biochar startup Myno Carbon when it was looking for a place to build its first facility.
“It’s been great,” said Thor Kallestad, Myno’s CEO and co-founder. “We’ve been really well received there.”
Biochar is made by turning organic material into a carbon-trapping, charcoal-like substance. Kettle Falls provides Myno with access to local timber waste and a power plant operated by Avista Utilities. In addition to producing biochar, Myno’s operations will generate steam power at Avista’s plant. The biochar could be sold to farmers or dairies for agricultural uses.
“The closer and the tighter we can stay to the source of the carbon upstream and downstream, the better the margins,” Kallestad said.
‘Our communities are in’
Group14 Technologies, a next-generation battery materials manufacturer, has accumulated more than $748 million from investors and federal funding and landed Porsche as a customer.
It’s ready to scale — and rural Washington is playing a key role.
The company recently broke ground on a factory in Moses Lake, a town of 26,000 people in Eastern Washington. The company expects the facility to be the world’s largest producer of advanced silicon battery material.
Historically, the economy of Moses Lake and surrounding Grant County was driven by agriculture. The area still grows roughly 100 different crops. But in recent years, the semi-arid region has become a hotspot for climate tech operations — with a focus on the jobs they provide rather than debates over climate policy.
“We are conservative in large part, but we’re also very pro-growth and pro-development,” said Brant Mayo, executive director of the Grant County Economic Development Council.
“In all of our communities, any time that we can land above median-wage jobs to diversify our economy, all of our communities are in for that,” Mayo said.
In addition to Group14, new climate-related businesses in the area include Sila Nanotechnologies, another battery materials manufacturer that’s also building a plant. Hydrogen producer Twelve is planning a facility in the area. Green aviation startups Universal Hydrogen and Eviation recently conducted test flights at Grant County International Airport. REC Silicon, an established business making chemicals for batteries and solar power, is ramping up production. The list goes on.
Group14, which launched in 2015, has had employees in Grant County for about four years to prep for its new facility, said CEO and co-founder Rick Luebbe.
“Our employee base so far is fundamentally motivated by the long-term vision, which is being a climate tech company,” Luebbe said.
But for the Moses Lake community it “is much more about the business opportunity,” he said. “So that’s really what we focus on.”
Building community partnerships
While political misalignment between rural communities and climate missions has not been a hindrance, leaders said clean tech businesses still need to build relationships before staking a claim.
“Just coming in and saying, ‘Look what you get’ isn’t going to work,” said Young, of the Commerce Department. “Washington is a bottom-up type of place.”
Helion Energy took the message to heart. The fusion company is preparing to site its first commercial plant in Washington, but before breaking ground — or even announcing its location — Helion is taking care to build community connections.
“Just coming in and saying, ‘Look what you get’ isn’t going to work.”
– Brian Young, Washington State Department of Commerce lead on clean and climate tech
“Our goal is to make sure that we are have really good involvement with the local community and we have everybody bought in,” said CEO and co-founder David Kirtley, in an interview last month. “We’re going to put this power plant in their community. We’re going to be creating lots of local jobs. And I want to make sure that everybody is coming together on that.”
The impact on an area can be significant.
Luebbe estimates Moses Lake could add 1,000 new jobs over the next two or three years, with hundreds coming from Group14 alone.
“Just think about what that means,” Luebbe said. “That means more housing, more schools, more infrastructure, more water, more power. So growth is really, really good, but growth requires investment as well. And it requires vision and work.”
Communities also need to strengthen academic and training programs to prep local students and workers for the new roles.
Luebbe and Mayo agreed that it all has to be done with care.
“We are trying to make sure this isn’t just a gold rush,” Mayo said. “We’re trying to make sure we are being very thoughtful and methodical about the growth … and making sure that it’s good for our communities, but also good for the companies coming in. We want them to be successful and lifelong community partners.”
