Navajo County
Navajo County () is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 106,717. The county seat is Holbrook.
Navajo County comprises the Show Low, Arizona Micropolitan Statistical Area.
N ...
is the first utility-scale
wind farm
A wind farm, also called a wind park or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turbines covering an exten ...
in the U.S. state of
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
. Starting in 2009, it was constructed in two phases having a total generating capacity of 128.1
megawatts
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...
Around 2003, rancher Bill Elkins began working with developer John Gaglioti and Northern Arizona University scientists to erect measurement towers on his land to measure wind speeds. He studied the local power grid to determine the feasibility of connecting a wind farm. Navajo County and Iberdrola officials credit Gaglioti and Elkins with attracting the first wind farm to Arizona.
Project details
Phase 1 () consists of 30
Suzlon
Suzlon Energy is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational wind turbine manufacturer headquartered in Pune.
History
Tulsi Tanti was a Gujarati people, Gujarati businessman managing a small textile company. Due to the erratic availa ...
wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s, for a total
nameplate capacity
Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,
Iberdrola Renewables
Iberdrola Renovables was a subsidiary of Iberdrola, headquartered in Valencia, Spain, which included companies in the domains of renewable energy, particularly wind power. The firm was the world's largest renewable energy firm: it was the worl ...
built the wind farm for $100 million. Based on wind measurements before construction began, Iberdrola estimated phase 1 would produce an average of 132,450
MWh
A kilowatt-hour ( unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a commo ...
annually. Depending on actual performance of phase 1, the company planned to install up to 209 more turbines in future construction phases.
Phase 2 () consists of 31 additional Suzlon turbines for a combined nameplate capacity of 65.1 MW. The location of phase 2 is about northwest of
Snowflake
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. 1, pp. 100–107.Hobbs, P.V. 1974. Ice Physics. Oxford: C ...
and southeast of phase 1.
Electricity production
(*) partial year of operation
Environmental effect
According to the
USDOE
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear weap ...
, each 1000 MW of wind power capacity installed in Arizona will save of water per year and eliminate 2.0 million tons of
carbon dioxide emissions
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate change. The ...
. Phase 1 of Dry Lake Wind Power Project would then eliminate:
of carbon dioxide, and save:
of water annually.