At long last, 'transformational' SunZia project breaks ground in Corona

Sep. 1—Local, state and federal officials joined renewable developer Pattern Energy at a celebratory groundbreaking just north of Corona Friday morning for the company's SunZia transmission and wind project, kicking off a three-year construction process to bring the massive renewable-energy system online by 2026.

Once built, SunZia will transport up to 3 gigawatts of wind energy — enough power to meet the needs of 3 million people — from Central New Mexico to South Central Arizona for use in western markets via a new 550-mile high-voltage transmission line.

The project, which took 15 years to get all government approvals in place, is billed as the largest single clean-energy development effort in U.S. history, and possibly the largest ever in the Western Hemisphere. Pattern expects to invest $8 billion to build the system, employing 2,000 people at peak construction, followed by 110 permanent workers.

The U.S Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management published a "record of decision" in May approving the project. And, last month, it issued a final "notice to proceed," greenlighting the groundbreaking.

About 100 people attended Friday's ceremony.

Pattern Energy CEO Hunter Armistead was joined by Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland, White House Senior Advisor to the President John Podesta, New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich and other government officials at the Friday morning event.

"SunZia is the successful result of a truly collaborative approach that accomplished something many thought was impossible," Armistead said in a prepared statement. "...More than 2,000 workers will now roll up their sleeves and get to work on America's largest clean energy infrastructure project, harnessing New Mexico's powerful winds to deliver clean power to 3 million Americans."

Haaland battled a brisk breeze to get her notes organized before making comments from the podium.

"It's probably a good thing it's a little windy," she said.

Haaland said SunZia represents the type of "historic investments" in renewable energy that are gaining traction nationwide with support from federal incentive programs enacted under the Biden administration.

"The SunZia Transmission Project will accelerate our nation's transition to a clean energy economy by unlocking renewable resources, creating jobs, lowering costs and boosting local economies," Haaland said in a statement. "...The Interior Department is helping build modern, resilient climate infrastructure that protects our communities from the worsening impacts of climate change."

Pattern plans to build both the transmission line and wind farms simultaneously for the entire system to come online at the same time. It will construct about 1,000 wind turbines in Lincoln, Torrance and San Miguel counties.

The line itself will run westward from its starting point near Corona in Lincoln County until crossing the Rio Grande south of Belen. From there, it will run due south before turning westward in southern New Mexico to cross into Arizona.

Huge impactAn economic impact study published in April by research firm Energy, Economic & Environment Consultants LLC estimated that the total economic impact over the 30-year life of the project could reach $20.5 billion. That includes $16.2 billion in direct capital spending, ongoing operations over three decades, and payments to landowners for hosting transmission lines and wind turbines on their property.

The project will also generate about $1.3 billion for local, state and federal governments through taxes and payments to agencies like the State Land Office, plus corporate sponsorships in rural communities. And, another $3 billion in indirect and "induced" benefits will accrue from spending on local goods and services, and from overall impact of increased local development on rural households and communities.

Not all those benefits, however, will accrue to New Mexico. Arizona will see about $1 billion in economic impact from that portion of the SunZia line built in that state. And about $12.1 billion of the remaining $19.5 billion impact will flow to out-of-state suppliers.

But that still leaves about $7.4 billion in local, New Mexico-based impact over 30 years, according to the study.

"SunZia will have a massive economic impact in New Mexico, creating thousands of jobs in our rural communities, while also bringing us one huge step closer to meeting our climate goals," Sen. Heinrich said in a statement. "That's why I fought hard for this project through a whole series of obstacles, and it's why I'm thrilled to welcome the start of construction."

15-year processSunZia's original transmission-line developer, Southwestern Power Group, first began working on the project in 2008. Southwestern initially planned to build two high-voltage lines to run parallel to each other, including a 3-GW direct current, or DC, line, and a 1.5-GW alternating current, or AC, line.

Pattern Energy, however, bought the rights to the DC line last year, leaving Southwestern Power to continue developing the AC line separately under a new project name, RioSol.

The BLM's "record of decision" in May gave both lines approval to move forward, and Southwestern now expects to break ground on RioSol in 2025, just as Pattern's work on the SunZia line is winding down.

But it took 15 years to get here.

That's because, after the permitting process began in 2009, SunZia got bogged down in yearslong disputes over its potential environmental impacts, and over U.S. Department of Defense concerns about interference with military operations at White Sands Missile range, where a portion of the lines would have crossed under Southwestern Power's original plans.

The developers eventually decided to move the entire east-to-west portion of the line further north, avoiding White Sands entirely and resolving all Defense Department concerns. But SunZia still faced intense opposition from some conservation groups, who feared the line's river crossing could be lethal to wintering flocks of sandhill cranes and other birds that might fly into it along the Rio Grande.

To address those concerns, transmission developers negotiated mitigation measures to protect birds and other wildlife. Pattern, for example, agreed to deploy near-ultraviolet illumination devices, plus bird flight diverters that spin in the wind and reflect light, along sensitive areas to scare birds away.

Pattern is also financing wildlife conservation studies and buying up targeted lots of land to convert into avian safe havens in both New Mexico and Arizona, generating praise from Audubon Southwest Vice President and Executive Director Jon Hayes.

"Audobon's collaboration with Pattern Energy exemplifies how clean energy developers and conservation organizations can work together to ensure that transmission projects use the latest data and science to minimize impacts on birds and communities," Hayes said in a statement.

Sen. Heinrich — who spearheaded efforts to unlock regulatory bottlenecks at the federal level throughout the permitting process — called the long-awaited launch of SunZia construction "transformational."

"I was first briefed on SunZia in 2009," Heinrich told participants in Friday's ground-breaking event. "At the time, I knew there would be obstacles, but I had no idea how many obstacles. And I knew it would take a long time, but I had no idea how long."

Senior Advisor to the President Podesta called SunZia a "game changer" in U.S. efforts to build a clean-energy economy.

"To tackle the climate crisis and bring clean, affordable, reliable power to American families, we need to build high-performance transmission projects like this one all across the country," Podesta said.

The Journal's Ollie Reed Jr. contributed to this report from Corona.