Xcel Energy launches Sagamore Wind Project near Portales
The largest single wind power farm in New Mexico will go operational by the end of December about 25 miles south of Portales.
Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy will flip the switch on 240 wind turbines at the Sagamore Wind Project, which can produce 522 megawatts – enough electricity to power 194,000 homes.
Sagamore joins the three-facility, 544-megawatt Pattern Energy Broadview/Grady stations north of Clovis that collectively make up the largest wind power station in the state.
Wind power is the big ticket for the state to achieve the goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity without carbon by 2045.
“We are going to meet and potentially exceed our clean energy goals in 2030, 2040 and beyond,” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in an online news conference Wednesday hosted by Xcel Energy with U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich also in attendance.
“The completion of the Sagamore Wind Project is proof that Eastern New Mexico is rapidly becoming one of the best places in the world to produce wind energy,”
Heinrich said.
New Mexico has 32 wind projects producing 1,953 megawatts in the third quarter, ranking 15th in the nation among states, according to the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department.
New Mexico also ranks 12th with fourfold growth in annual wind generation from 2010-19, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Electricity Data Browser.
Xcel is the primary electricity provider in six Eastern New Mexico counties.
“By 2024, wind and solar will provide over half of our energy needs in New Mexico and Texas,” Xcel Chairman and CEO Ben Fowke said during the news conference.
Construction on Sagamore started in December 2019 and involved Xcel entering into 25-year leases for 100,000 acres for $89 million with 175 land owners. The project will produce $101 million in property taxes, Xcel Senior Vice President of Generation Teresa Mogesen said.
Sagamore will have 25 full-time employees, she added.
About 95 percent of the farmland will still be used for agriculture.