The largest wind farm in the U.S. is ready to go online this month, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The SunZia Wind project, located in New Mexico with a net summer generating capacity of 3,650 megawatts (MW), will use all 916 turbines to deliver power to Arizona and California.
Pattern Energy Group, the project’s developer and operator, began construction in 2023, followed by a brief pause as Native American tribes argued the federal government ignored concerns about how the transmission line may impact religious and cultural sites. The wind farm was accompanied by a new 550-mile ± 525 kV high-voltage direct current transmission line between central New Mexico and south-central Arizona.
After more than 17 years of navigating permits and approvals, Pattern Energy Group closed $11 billion in non-recourse financing and started full construction in late 2023, ending the pause in construction enacted by federal land managers. Pattern Energy previously billed the SunZia project as an energy infrastructure undertaking bigger than the Hoover Dam.
With SunZia online, the net summer wind generating capacity in New Mexico is expected to jump from 3,997 MW to 7,647 MW, EIA said. This brings wind’s share of the state’s capacity mix to 45%, followed by solar and natural gas, both at 19% respectively.
The majority of SunZia’s generated electricity will be exported to Southern California and Arizona, with 2,131 MW of the line’s 3,021 MW capacity delivered to Southern California’s Palo Verde substation.
GE Vernova was selected to supply 674 3.6-154 wind turbines providing more than 2.4 GW of power at the SunZia project, which was the largest single onshore wind turbine order ever received by GE, both in terms of number of turbines and gigawatts of power generation. The project was supplied through GE Vernova’s nacelle facility in Pensacola, Florida, as well as tower manufacturing facilities in Belen, New Mexico, Pueblo, Colorado, and Amarillo, Texas.
Pattern Energy previously touted that the SunZia Transmission and SunZia Wind projects are expected to generate $20.5 billion dollars in total economic benefit, which includes over $8 billion of direct capital investment, at no added cost to ratepayers, according to the results of an independent study conducted by the research firm Energy, Economic & Environment Consultants LLC. Together, the projects will generate an expected $1.3 billion in fiscal impacts that will go to governments, communities, and schools. These benefits are generated through sales and use taxes, property taxes, community benefit payments, and land payments to federal and state agencies.
