“This cost-effective system will become TEP’s largest renewable energy resource, accelerating our progress toward our clean energy goals while allowing us to help customers achieve their own sustainability objectives,” said David G. Hutchens, TEP President and CEO.
When the project is complete, TEP’s renewable energy production is expected to exceed 28 percent of its retail sales. That level would more than double the state requirement for 2021 while approaching the 30 percent goal TEP has planned to achieve by 2030.
EDF Renewables North America will develop the system for TEP through a build and transfer agreement for a cost of approximately $370 million. The project was selected through a competitive bid process and will qualify for federal tax credits that are expected to recoup more than two thirds of its cost over its first 10 years of operation, savings that will be passed along to TEP’s customers.
“We’re capitalizing on a unique opportunity to develop this valuable resource at an attractive cost, helping us maintain affordable service for our customers,” Hutchens said.
The Oso Grande project will include 61 turbines installed on 24,000 acres southeast of Roswell, New Mexico. The system’s output will be delivered to Tucson through existing transmission lines that connect to TEP’s transmission system in eastern Arizona. Construction is expected to begin later this year, and the system should be online by the end of 2020.
Oso Grande will become TEP’s single largest dedicated renewable energy resource. Today, the company’s largest system is the 71-MW Red Horse wind and solar system near Willcox, Arizona.
TEP’s renewable energy portfolio currently includes 277 MW of community-scale solar resources and 80 MW of wind systems, complemented by 232 MW of rooftop solar arrays installed by customers. Those resources produced energy equivalent to about 13 percent of TEP’s retail sales in 2018 – enough to power more than 117,000 homes for a year.
Over the next two years, TEP’s clean energy resources will be boosted by the Oso Grande wind farm and two other large new projects expected to come online in 2020:
