Located in Curry County, the wind facility is powered by 84 Siemens Gamesa 2.625MW wind turbines with 120-meter rotors
Image: Pattern Development’s Grady wind farm has begun operations in New Mexico, US. Photo: courtesy of Free-Photos/Pixabay.
US-based Pattern Development has completed construction and started operations at the 220MW Grady wind farm in New Mexico, US.
Pattern Energy Group, a subsidiary of Pattern Development is operating the facility along with the neighboring 324MW Broadview Wind facilities.
Located in Curry County, the wind facility is powered by 84 Siemens Gamesa 2.625MW wind turbines with 120-meter rotors.
Pattern Development CEO Mike Garland said: “The successful completion of Grady Wind represents an important step in New Mexico’s evolution as a major renewable energy producer.
“As the leading wind developer and operator in New Mexico, we are proud to be helping position New Mexico as a wind energy leader. We also plan to ramp up construction in early 2020 on more than 800MW of new wind facilities in central New Mexico, creating hundreds of new construction jobs and generating billions of dollars in economic impact.
“As wind and solar energy development grow throughout the state, New Mexicans will reap the economic benefits.”
The Grady wind farm will produce enough energy to power approximately 90,000 households annually.
The facility has a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for all of the electricity produced which will be delivered across the Western Interconnect transmission line.
According to the company, the construction of the Grady wind project created hundreds of jobs for the people of New Mexico and is now delivering additional economic benefits, such as land lease payments to local landowners and tax revenue for the host communities of eastern New Mexico.
The wind farm employs 20 full-time workers for ongoing maintenance and operations.
Pattern Development’s other projects in US
In November last year, Pattern Development began operations of 79.75MW Stillwater Wind facility in Montana, US. The wind farm can power nearly 23,000 homes per year.
The wind facility features a total of 31 of Siemens Gamesa, including five 2.3MW turbines with 108-meter rotors and 26 of 2.625 MW turbines with 120-meter rotors.