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 — and signaling a new era for sending clean electricity across the West.
Nearly two decades in the making, the estimated $11-billion SunZia project from Pattern Energy is now fully operational, company officials said Thursday. It’s made up of 916 turbines that can produce up to 3.65 gigawatts of electricity, making it potentially more powerful than the Hoover Dam.
It’s 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…