New funding coming out of Washington has been secured for a long-planned transmission line project running across the lower regions of New Mexico and Arizona.
The Southline Transmission Project will see the construction of a double-circuit, 748-megawatt transmission line running around 175 miles between Hildalgo County, New Mexico, and Pima County in Arizona.
New funding to the tune of $1.3 billion for the project has just been announced by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of a package of three transmission projects designed, in part, to achieve national decarbonization between now and the year 2050.
Such projects, said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a statement, will help to “drive down costs for American families and deliver thousands of good paying jobs for American workers, helping communities keep the lights on in the face of climate changed-induced weather events.”
In announcing the awarding of the grant in ceremonies at the Apache Generating Station in Cochise, Arizona, Granholm pointed to the coming Maxeon Solar Panel Factory in Albuquerque and the American Battery Factory in Tucson and remarked: “The last thing we need is an outdated grid that is holding us back.”
The Southline project, which has been in the planning stage for more than a decade, has been touted by its supporters not only for providing reliable power across a desert terrain, stretching from one existing substation to another, but also for minimizing land use by being built along existing infrastructure in the area.
Two other projects receiving Energy Department funding: the Cross-Tie Transmission Line, a 214-mile 1500 megawatt line between Utah and Nevada; and the Twin States Clean Energy Link, seeing a 1,200 megawatt line built between New Hampshire and Vermont.
Construction is expected to begin in early 2024, with plans for the first phase of the Southline Transmission project being operational by 2027, and the second phase completed the following year.
By Garry Boulard
