Tucson Electric opens wind farm in New Mexico

The power answer for 402,000 Tucson Electric customers may be blowing in the wind. The southern Arizona utility now has its very first wind energy resource capable of providing power for 14,000 homes with the 50-megawatt Macho Springs Wind Farm in Deming, N.M.

The wind farm went online this week in southwest New Mexico with 28 wind turbines on approximately 2,000 acres of ranch land. Macho Springs was developed in an area with strong, steady winds and existing transmission lines to deliver energy to Tucson.

Tucson Electric, a unit of UniSource Energy Corp., says it will buy the wind power plant’s electricity for 20 years. Approximately 150 jobs were reportedly created during the construction of the project.