Arizona utility Salt River Project (SPR) is contracting with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources to buy the electricity from the 161MW Babbitt Ranch wind farm located in the US state’s Coconino County.
The project, which will be situated north of Flagstaff, is scheduled to begin delivering electricity to SRP’s power grid by December 2023.
It will produce enough energy to power about 40,000 typical residential homes.
SRP issued a request for information in June 2020 for up to 500MW of wind resources.
Following that process and discussions with NextEra Energy Resources as well as other developers, SRP decided the proposed Babbitt Ranch project would be the most viable to meet growing customer demand within the required timeline.
SRP chief strategy, corporate services and sustainability executive Kelly Barr said: “With SRP’s newly announced utility-scale renewable resources, nearly 50% of the energy delivered to SRP customers by 2025 will be carbon-free.
“Wind power from this project will bring more diversity to our resource mix which is growing rapidly in clean energy generation.
“Furthermore, utility-scale wind power is a great complement to solar power generation, as wind often blows at times when the sun is not shining.”
NextEra Energy Resources senior vice president of development Matt Handel said: “We are very pleased to continue working with SRP to deliver low-cost, clean, renewable energy to its customers.
“The Babbitt Ranch Energy Center will also create a significant economic stimulus for the local community, creating good jobs and millions in additional tax revenue.”
The contract for the wind farm does not affect the amount of generation SRP is looking for through its current all-source request for proposals, which is seeking competitive proposals for up to 400MW of peak generating capacity by summer 2024, and another 600MW by summer 2026.