When the SunZia Wind and Transmission project opened earlier this year in New Mexico, it was the biggest clean energy project in America. The wind farm’s massive turbines are already generating more energy than the Hoover Dam, and they’re feeding crucial energy via power lines woven through the American southwest.
It’s a remarkable feat, but it’s also one that almost didn’t happen. As Sara Herschander explains in her latest feature, the project was in limbo for decades thanks to environmental lawsuits, permitting issues, and an energy market that didn’t yet sustain enough demand for all of the energy the farm would ultimately generate. In leading us through those challenges and the ways that developers overcame them, Sara shows that SunZia just might be a model for the ambitious clean energy projects of the future.
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—Jacob Brogan, Deputy Editor, Future Perfect
