TEP Wind Turbine Project to Provide Clean Energy by November

Crews installed the final blade on wind turbines at a major project in New Mexico that will begin providing clean energy for the Tucson area by November.

This week, crews will begin powering up and checking each of the 62 wind turbines in TEP’s Oso Grande Wind project, which sits on 24,000 acres southeast of Roswell, N.M. The full project is scheduled to start operating within two months.

When completed, the project will generate enough energy each year to serve about 90,000 homes.

“This is a major milestone for the project,” said Michael Bryan, Asset Manager of the project. “We are very excited and looking forward to begin operating soon.”

When completed, the project will serve as TEP’s largest renewable energy resource, helping meet TEP’s long-term plan of providing more than 70 percent of its power from wind and solar resources.

Here are some fun facts about the project:

• The cranes used to install the blades are 415-feet tall
• The large turbines require 325 bolts to secure the blades.
• Each of the wind turbine foundations took 590 yards of concrete. That’s 59 concrete trucks worth of concrete, usually taking four hours to complete.
• It took more than 1,000 hours to install one wind turbine.

Read more about the Oso Grande project and find five facts about wind power.