SRP adding one of Arizona’s biggest windfarms north of Flagstaff
A late-November snowfall is providing a winter backdrop for a new wind farm arising north of Flagstaff that will soon generate clean energy for customers of utility Salt River Project.
The Babbitt Ranches Energy Center is being built by NextEra Energy Resources 25 miles north of the city on Babbitt Ranches private land in Coconino County. The company is investing $280 million in the project.
Once it comes online next summer, the 161-megawatt wind farm will be the largest on SRP’s power grid and one of the biggest in Arizona. The Babbitt Ranches project will produce enough energy to power about 40,000 average-size homes.
The project will feature around 50 wind turbines on the site, ranging from 2 to 3.5 megawatts each. A single large turbine there can produce enough power for about 780 average-size homes. The large turbines on the site have a height of 384 feet to the rotor hub at the center of the blades, making them taller than the Statue of Liberty at 305 feet, including its pedestal. The turbines span 469 feet in diameter.
SRP contracted last year with the subsidiary of Florida-based NextEra Energy to purchase power from the project over 30 years. NextEra Energy describes itself as the world’s largest generator of renewable solar and wind power.
The two companies have been collaborating in other ways, such as on a newly commissioned solar battery project in Coolidge that stores up solar power during the day for release during high-demand evening hours.
NextEra Energy has more than two dozen projects in Arizona, mostly under construction or in development and mostly involving solar power in Pinal County.