Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Interior has authorized the SunZia transmission line planned for the Southwest, and project developers will now turn their attention to permitting at the state level.
• The $2 billion project is designed to help enable development of wind and solar energy from New Mexico and Arizona, as well as providing more than 6,000 construction jobs in the region.
• SunZia is one of six priority projects of the Obama Administration’s Rapid Response Team for Transmission, which works to improve the overall quality and timeliness of permitting for electric transmission infrastructure.

Dive Insight:

Federal officials this week green-lighted the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project, which they believe could also open the door for new renewable energy generation projects with the potential to create an additional 40,000 construction and operations jobs.

“The SunZia Project will help unlock the abundant renewable energy resources in the Southwest, creating jobs and bringing reliable, sustainable power to a growing corner of our country,” said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. “I applaud all of our partners that collaborated to ensure that this infrastructure charts a course that makes sense for our economy, environment and national security.”

The project will construct, operate and maintain two parallel 500-kilovolt transmission lines and ancillary facilities located on federal, state and private lands between the proposed SunZia East Substation in Lincoln County, New Mexico, and the existing Pinal Central Substation in Pinal County, Arizona, a distance of about 515 miles.

On its website, SunZia said it "will continue development efforts, including compliance with all state and local permitting requirements in Arizona and New Mexico."

Working with the Department of Defense, The Bureau of Land Management identified mitigation measures to protect military capabilities at the nearby White Sands Missile Range, including burial of three segments totaling approximately five miles in Socorro and Torrance counties. The agency also said the route of the transmission lines avoids major population centers and cultural sites, and parallels existing power lines, highways and pipelines where possible.

SunZia is the first of Obama's priority projects approved in its entirety in the West by the BLM.

“The SunZia transmission line will finally unlock New Mexico’s stranded wind and solar resources and move that energy to market,” said U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. “This infrastructure investment will not only spur many permanent clean energy jobs in generation, but it will also put thousands of people to work on the construction of this line.”

Last year, SunZia Southwest Transmission Project Manager Tom Wray told Utility Dive that project backers hoped to have a record of decision from DOI by February 2015.