The transmission line of the SunZia project from Pattern Energy – credit, Pattern Energy, ©
The largest renewable energy infrastructure project in US history is fully operational.
The SunZia project is expected to generate and deliver more power than the Hoover Dam and be a reliable energy to the western United States for the next 30 years.
The approximately 3,650-megawatt (MW) wind project and 550-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line that comprise SunZia generate power in New Mexico to Arizona and deliver it to customers across the western grid.
At full capacity, the project can deliver enough energy to power approximately one million American homes annually.
The wind turbines are located between Torrance and Lincoln counties in New Mexico, while the transmission line runs to a station in Pinal County just south of Phoenix.
At the center of that solution is SunZia’s HVDC transmission system, which moves large amounts of electricity efficiently across long distances. With major converter stations at each end of the line converting power for delivery and then back for use on the grid, SunZia is deploying one of the first major HVDC systems built in the United States in a generation.
“SunZia proves that we can still build the consequential infrastructure this country needs,” said Hunter Armistead, CEO of Pattern Energy, which owns, funded, and built SunZia.
“We did this the right way, we did it on time and on budget—in genuine partnership with the local communities and landowners who trusted us, with the environmental stewardship this unique landscape deserves, and with the determination to see something through that many thought was too big and too complex to finish.”
Complexities included many, from an agreement to relocate existing mature saguaro cacti and large agave plants to building the tall HVDC towers is remote, environmentally sensitive areas supplied almost entirely by helicopter.
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Construction on SunZia began in September 2023 and more than 2,000 quality jobs were supported at peak construction. The project also created more than 100 permanent operations jobs in New Mexico and Arizona.
Pattern Energy claims the facility will invest over $20 billion in New Mexico and Arizona communities including $1.3 billion in direct payments to local governments, schools, counties and private landowners over the first 30 years of operations.
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“Large-scale transmission is essential to meeting the West’s growing energy needs and strengthening reliability across the grid,” said Elliot Mainzer, President and CEO of the California Independent System Operator (ISO).
“Projects of this scale help deliver energy reliably to areas of rising demand, improve the movement of power across states and support a more resilient, flexible, and affordable electric system. SunZia represents the kind of long-term infrastructure investment needed to serve customers today and prepare the grid for the future.”
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