The largest wind energy project in U.S. history is now online, delivering power from a massive array in New Mexico to Arizona and California \u2014 and signaling a new era for sending clean electricity across the West.<\/p>\n
Nearly two decades in the making, the estimated $11-billion SunZia project from Pattern Energy is now fully operational, company officials said Thursday. It\u2019s made up of 916 turbines that can produce up to 3.65 gigawatts of electricity, making it potentially more powerful than the Hoover Dam.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also more than three times bigger than either of the next two largest U.S. wind farms, Alta Wind in Kern County and Great Prairie in northern Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a scale that would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago. <\/p>\n
Crucially, the project also includes a 550-mile high-voltage direct-current transmission line that delivers wind power from New Mexico to the Palo Verde substation in Arizona, where it then feeds into Southern California. In all, some two-thirds of the power sent across the line will be delivered to the state. <\/p>\n
Experts say the project already has begun making a difference on the grid: Since SunZia began testing in April, the state\u2019s Independent System Operator, CAISO, has reported record-breaking amounts of wind power on the California grid at least five times, according to Dennis Wamsted, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. <\/p>\n
Wind output on May 15 hit a record 8,294 megawatts \u2014 almost 1,600 megawatts higher than the record before SunZia power began flowing into the state, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a milestone, there\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d Wamsted said. \u201cThey\u2019re tapping into a great wind resource in New Mexico, and that wind resource is now going to be used across the Southwest. It\u2019s good for consumers everywhere, and it\u2019s really good for folks who are in favor of a transition away from fossil fuels.\u201d <\/p>\n
The New Mexico region was selected in part for its strong and consistent winds, comparable to those off the coast of Morro Bay. <\/p>\n
Much of it will come when the wind picks up at night, complementing California\u2019s abundant daytime solar power, and batteries, which discharge for a few hours around sunset. <\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not only a benefit for California. The project reflects a renewed effort to move large amounts of remote wind or solar power to high-demand population centers across multiple states. <\/p>\n
\u201cLarge-scale transmission is essential to meeting the West\u2019s growing energy needs and strengthening reliability across the grid,\u201d said Elliot Mainzer, CAISO\u2019s president and chief executive, in a statement. \u201cProjects 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
It also comes at a critical moment. While many countries, including China, are investing heavily in renewable energy including wind, solar and battery energy storage, the U.S. has pulled back on these under the Trump administration, which has prioritized fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal<\/a> in its mission to \u201cunleash American energy.\u201d <\/p>\n The president has especially targeted offshore wind, striking a series of multimillion-dollar deals<\/a> with energy developers to walk away from offshore wind leases in federal waters and instead invest in domestic fossil fuel and geothermal projects. Two of those abandoned leases have been off the coast of California\u2019s Morro Bay.<\/p>\n The data show land-based wind, such as the SunZia project, already is cost competitive<\/a> with other major new-build power sources in the U.S. Despite Trump\u2019s approach, red states have continued to expand their wind power, such as Texas, which now leads the nation<\/a> in the development of wind and solar power as well as battery storage. <\/p>\n