Tucson, Ariz. – Crews completed turbine construction and started system testing at the Oso Grande Wind Project, which is expected to begin producing clean energy for Tucson Electric Power (TEP) customers before the end of the year.
With 62 wind turbines installed on 24,000 acres in southeast New Mexico, Oso Grande will serve as TEP’s single largest renewable resource. The 250-megawatt (MW) system will generate enough energy every year to serve about 90,000 homes.
Oso Grande will play a significant role in TEP’s long-term plan to provide more than 70 percent of its power from wind and solar resources by 2035. With the completion of Oso Grande project and other planned renewable systems, the company will more than double its wind and solar capacity in less than a year. TEP’s other ongoing renewable projects include the Wilmot Energy Center – a 100-MW solar array and 30-MW battery storage system south of Tucson International Airport – as well as a 100 MW wind project about 100 miles south of Gallup, New Mexico.
TEP will devote portions of Oso Grande and the Wilmot Energy Center to serving the University of Arizona’s Tucson campus through a landmark energy supply agreement announced last year. The UA is now the largest research university in the country with a plan to offset all of its scope two emissions – those produced from the generation of energy purchased from a utility provider. The agreement provides the university with affordable access to energy from both renewable systems for 20 years, beginning on the first day that both systems are operating.
TEP provides safe, reliable electric service to approximately 432,000 customers in Southern Arizona. For more information, visit tep.com. TEP and its parent company, UNS Energy, are subsidiaries of Fortis Inc., which owns utilities that serve more than 3 million customers across Canada and in the United States and the Caribbean. For more information, visit fortisinc.com.
News Media ContactJoseph Barrios520-884-3725jbarrios@tep.com
