Crews from RMT, Inc. are breezing through the construction phase of a 10.5-megawatt wind-and-solar Western Wind Energy Wind Farm. The farm, which is on Route 66 a few miles southwest of Kingman, is set to be completed in July.

Construction crews work May 2 to offload a 150-foot wind turbine blade at the Western Wind Energy Wind Farm a few miles southwest of Kingman. Jayne Hanson/News-Herald Photo

“This is a good wind resource area,” said Bob Tepp, who is the RMT, Inc. project manager. “It’s a great place to have (a wind farm), definitely.”

The project’s five 1.8-megawatt turbines —and the site’s half-megawatt photovoltaic solar system — are expected to begin producing an average of 10.5 megawatts of power later this year.

The wind farm is on 864 acres, which is a portion of a larger 110,000-acre parcel owned by Western Wind. There is the possibility of erecting an additional five more turbines on the site, Tepp said.

On May 2, a group of Mohave County officials toured the construction site. The group included Ron Durgin, the county’s chief building official; Chris Ballard, county planning and zoning director; Nick Hont, county director of developmental services; and Supervisor Buster Johnson, R-Dist. 3.

Ballard called the site “amazing” and Supervisor Johnson called it “impressive” on the heels of the tour.

According to the company’s website, Western Wind Energy owns two operating facilities in California. The smaller of the two, the Windridge Wind Farm, produces 4.5 megawatts and is in Tehachapi, Calif. The other is Mesa Wind Farm, a 30 megawatt-rated system in Palm Springs, Calif.

In December, the company began construction on another California-based facility, the Windstar project, which is a 120-megawatt project, and the 10.5-megawatt system in Kingman.

The company has signed a power purchase agreement with UNS Electric, Inc., a subsidiary of UniSource Energy Corporation of Arizona.

“We broke ground December 28,” Tepp said.

Erection of the large-scale wind turbines is currently underway at the Kingman site, according to Western Wind officials. All turbine components recently arrived on site and four of the five towers are now in place. The mechanical-completion of the turbines is expected to be complete by the end of May.

Tepp said the center of a turbine is about 270 feet from the ground and the three 150-foot blades span from there. He said it is about the width of “a football field across” when it is operational.

The turbines are equipped with technologically advanced weather gauges that allow the turbine to seek out wind directions and the blades to twist, or rotate to a degree, to more efficiently harness the wind.

In the area of the project, winds average from 7 mph to 30 mph, Tepp said.

The project has provided about 300 jobs, including some locals. However, the task did require specially trained personnel, who were brought in from Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Naturally, all employees and visitors to the site are made well aware of natural desert-habitat residents including Desert Recluse brown spiders, Black Widows, ravens, Arizona Bark Scorpions, Gila Monsters, Sonoran Desert Tortoises, Western Diamond Back Rattlesnakes and Mohave Green Rattlesnakes.

Tepp said the Mohave Greens are the most predominate wildlife crews are dealing with on the site. Four or five rattlesnakes are shooed away from roadways, gates or project work sites each week.

Western Wind owns over 500 wind turbines with 165 megawatts of net rated capacity in production of construction. A further 311 megawatts in projects wait in the wings and are slotted for locations in California, Arizona, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, according to the website.

You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.