Quanta and Hitachi win US contracts for $8bn SunZia wind farm and power line project

Pattern Energy has selected Quanta Services and Hitachi Energy for construction and high-voltage direct current (HVDC) equipment supply for its $8bn, multi-gigawatt SunZia transmission and wind project, the largest renewables development in the western hemisphere.

Quanta will construct the proposed 550-mile (885-km), 525kV line that will deliver up to 3GW of clean power from a massive future 3.5GW wind farm in central New Mexico across desert terrain west to Arizona for grid connections to adjacent states including California. It will also build the HVDC converter stations.

Blattner, a Quanta company, will construct the wind farm complex and associated switchyard, which includes the installation of more than 900 turbines, 10 substations, multiple O&M facilities, and more than 100 miles of related transmission lines.

The Quanta and Blattner contracts are both turnkey. Pattern, based in San Francisco, did not disclose their financial terms.

Hitachi Energy will design and supply the HVDC equipment and technology for the transmission line that will enable efficient transfer and integration of large volumes of wind energy over long distances, according to Pattern.

“The SunZia project is changing the landscape for renewable energy, and we need to ensure we have the best team in place to help bring it to life,” said Pattern CEO Hunter Armistead.

Last July, Pattern acquired the SunZia transmission project from developer SouthWestern Power Group. It has been in development for more than a decade.

Part of the project will be located on public lands under the administration of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

SunZia and TransWest have come to symbolise bureaucratic and politicised federal permitting processes blocking merchant power lines and US clean energy growth.

Over the last decade, backers of multiple other projects abandoned them, unwilling to tie up large sums of capital for years waiting for environmental reviews and other regulatory processes to evolve.

President Joe Biden has vowed to institute federal permitting reforms for infrastructure projects, noting present transmission supply will fall far short of matching future clean energy demand later this decade and beyond.

Progress has been slow, however, amid differing approaches to address the problem among federal and state elected officials and regulators, and grid operators.