One giant US power line, enough wind power for 1 million homes

SunZia, an $11 billion wind-and-power-line project and one of the largest US clean energy transmission projects ever built, is officially online.

Pattern Energy and Hitachi Energy announced that the SunZia Transmission line is now fully operational, carrying renewable electricity from New Mexico to customers across the Southwest.

The 550-mile high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line can move up to 3,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the SunZia Wind project in New Mexico to Arizona and customers across the western grid. That’s enough electricity for around 1 million US homes and comes at a time when power demand is climbing due to data centers, electrification, and industrial growth.

While the giant 3.65-GW, 916-turbine SunZia Wind has grabbed plenty of headlines, getting that electricity to where it’s needed is just as important. The new transmission line makes that possible, moving large amounts of wind power over long distances with relatively low energy losses.

The project is also a major milestone for US grid infrastructure. The ±525-kilovolt HVDC line is the largest voltage source converter-based HVDC installation in the US and one of the largest in the world.