The $2bn project, which would create over 6,000 jobs during construction and over 100 permanent jobs once online, will help enable future development of wind and solar energy from New Mexico and Arizona, thereby providing renewable power to the growing desert southwest region.
US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said: "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.
The SunZia Project is one of six projects of the Obama Administration’s Rapid Response Team for Transmission, which aims to enhance the overall quality and timeliness of permitting for electric transmission infrastructure.
SunZia is the first of the priority projects approved in its entirety in the West by the BLM.
US Senator Martin Heinrich said: "The SunZia transmission line will finally unlock New Mexico’s stranded wind and solar resources and move that energy to market.
The project includes construction, operation and maintenance of two parallel 500kV 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.
