The Lava Run Wind Project is a 500-megawatt wind energy project located in the southern portion Apache County, AZ. The Project is sited entirely on Arizona State Lands near U.S. Highway 60, approximately 12 miles northwest of Springerville and 20 miles south of St Johns. Repsol Renewables anticipates needing up to 112 turbine locations for the Project; however, the final number of turbine locations will depend on the size of the turbine that is chosen for the Project. The project will interconnect to the grid at the Springerville 345kV Substation owned by Tucson Electric Power.

The Lava Run Wind Project has been under consideration since early 2019 and is still in the project development phase. Since 2019, Repsol Renewables has been diligently studying the environmental resources within the area, collecting wind data from six separate data collection devices, and having preliminary discussions with grazing lessees and members of the community.

Apache County will collect and benefit from the property tax revenue generated by the Lava Run Wind and Solar Projects. Even though the projects are primarily sited on state land, project infrastructure will be treated as personal property subject to property taxes, per A.R.S. § 42-19003.

The Arizona Department of Revenue will use the valuation method described in A.R.S. § 42-14155 to value the utility-scale renewable energy equipment and transmit the value data to the Apache County Assessor’s Office, per A.R.S. 42-14153. The Apache County Assessor’s Office will then enter the value of the installed renewable energy equipment to the local personal property tax roll under a special account number. Once on the tax roll, the property tax dollars generated by the wind and solar facilities will be collected by the Apache County Treasurer’s Office each year and dispersed to the local taxing authorities.

The Lava Run Wind Project will provide numerous benefits to the communities of St Johns, Springerville, Eager, and all of Apache County. The Project represents a total capital investment of approximately $1 billion, which will result in a significant increase in the County’s taxable property base. The Project will benefit the County by generating approximately $31.5 million in new property tax revenues over its first 35 years while also creating jobs and increasing demand for local businesses.

During construction, the Lava Run Wind Project will contribute more than $373,000 in sales tax revenues to Apache County while supporting on average 100 construction jobs over two years. These construction workers will drive local economic development through increased demand for supply chain businesses, hospitality services, equipment rentals, and other local businesses. Once operational, the project will create up to 15 long-term jobs, which provide well-paying opportunities for families to work and remain in the communities surrounding the Project.

Additionally, Repsol Renewables is actively designing a Lava Run Wind Community Benefit Program to provide direct funding for local initiatives. This program will be established based on direct feedback from community members throughout our outreach efforts over the last two years. While the Community Benefit Program is still in progress, it is anticipated that funding will support the agricultural tradition of the area, tourism in the White Mountain region, emergency response services, and more.

Although the area of study encompasses approximately 55,100 acres of Arizona State Lands, the project infrastructure will encompass a much smaller area. Specifically, the total area required to construct the Project would encompass approximately 3,000 acres of temporary disturbance, of which approximately 500 acres would host the facility infrastructure and accommodate operations and maintenance activities. The temporary disturbance areas will be restored after construction, and the permanent disturbance areas will be restored at the end of the Project’s 35-year operational life.

Yes. Wind energy is a low-cost resource that is competitive with conventional energy sources. The cost of wind energy has declined by 69% over the last decade,¹ and with improved technology and U.S.-based manufacturing, wind energy is “cost competitive with other energy sources and the cheapest source of new electricity in many parts of the country.”²

No. The majority of peer-reviewed studies on the subject has found that wind turbines have statistically insignificant long-term impacts on the value of neighboring residential and agricultural properties in the United States.

• The U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab collected data from more than 50,000 home sales among 27 counties in nine states. These homes were within 10 miles of 67 different wind facilities, and 1,198 sales were within one mile of a wind turbine. The data span the periods well before announcement of the wind facilities to well after their construction. The research found no statistical evidence that home values near turbines were affected in the post-construction or post-announcement/preconstruction periods.³
• A study from the Department of Agriculture Economics at Kansas State University analyzed parcel-level transaction data from 2001 through 2017 in Kansas and found that utility-scale wind turbines have no statistically significant impact on agricultural land values, on both properties hosting turbines and those nearby.⁴
• The U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab analyzed over 1.8 million property transactions across 27 counties in nine U.S. states, focusing on the impact of wind energy development on property values. The researchers found that properties experienced a slight decrease following the announcement of a new commercial project, followed by an increase in home prices after commencement of project operations.⁵

Wind projects drive economic development in counties, especially rural ones. In fact, Brunner and Schwegman (2022) find that wind projects may benefit counties as a whole by increasing the size of the local economy, median household income, and median home values; they also find that rural communities experience greater economic benefits from wind installations than urban communities. Furthermore, the Lava Run Wind Project is expected to contribute significantly to Apache County’s economy through sales and property tax revenues, state land rent payments, and the Community Benefits Program.

Only approximately 1% of a wind project area is occupied by project infrastructure, leaving the remaining 99% available for current land use during project operations. For the safety of all parties, the only areas that may be fenced include the operations and maintenance building and the project substations.

Yes, hundreds of thousands of people around the world live and work close to operating wind turbines without any health or safety effects. Over 20 years of research into the impact of wind turbines on human health indicates that wind turbines, when constructed property, do not pose a risk to human health.⁶

• The Ohio Department of Public Health released a review and summary of available scientific literature regarding wind turbines and public health between 2004 and 2018. It concluded that “there is no significant body of peer-reviewed, scientific evidence that clearly demonstrates a direct link between adverse physical health effects and exposure to noise, visual phenomena, or EMF associated with wind turbine projects.⁷
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine titled, “Wind Turbines and Health: A Critical Review of the Scientific Literature.” A panel of experts with professional experience and training in occupational and environmental medicine, acoustics, epidemiology, otolaryngology, psychology, and public health was commissioned to “assess the peer-reviewed literature regarding potential health effects among people living in the vicinity of wind turbines.” Upon review, they concluded, “No clear or consistent association is seen between noise from wind turbines and any reported disease or other indicator of harm to human health.”⁸
• Health Canada, in partnership with Statistics Canada, conducted a major study of over one thousand homes and reached the same conclusion, stating, “No evidence was found to support a link between exposure to wind turbine noise and any of the self-reported illnesses.”⁹

Further, wind projects do not burn fossil fuel to generate electricity and, as a result, do not emit any air pollutants such as carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, or particulate matter. Wind energy helps avoid 336 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, which is equivalent to removing 73 million cars from the road.¹⁰ It is estimated that by reducing harmful emissions that contribute to chronic illness and premature death, wind projects reduce public health costs by billions of dollars a year.¹¹

Wind turbine fires are incredibly rare and are concentrated in the older generation of wind turbines (i.e., those installed 10+ years ago). 

All turbines at Lava Run will be equipped with fire detection systems and programmed to automatically shut down if an alarm is triggered. Additionally, the project will be monitored and controlled via an on-site O&M building, as well as a Remote Operations Control Center (ROCC). The ROCC will be staffed 24/7, and it will be able to shut down the turbines as necessary or at the request of the local fire department. 

We expect to utilize approximately 8 acre-feet of water (or the annual water usage of 24 U.S. households) for concrete batching. This will be a one-time use. In 2020, the Springerville Generating Station used approximately 10,400 acre-feet of water, or about 28.4 acre-feet per day.^12,13 Put another way, the Springerville plant uses three times the amount of water that would be required for the turbine foundations in just one day. The project’s water needs will also come at a time when the Springerville plant will be operating at a reduced level, so project construction is not expected to add to the region’s current water usage.

The project will be designed and constructed to have an expected minimum useful life of 35 years.

Repsol Renewables is responsible for the decommissioning and removal of project infrastructure, as well as site restoration, at the end of the Project’s life. During the Conditional Use Permit process, Apache County requires a Decommissioning & Restoration Plan be put in place, outlining the various ways in which the project owner will safely and responsibly remove installed equipment and restore the property within the project area. In addition, financial securities equal to the cost of decommissioning will be required prior to construction to ensure Apache County will bear no financial responsibility for decommissioning or restoration.

Up to 94% of a wind turbine is recyclable today, as they are mostly made of steel, copper, aluminum, and iron.¹⁴ The composite materials (fiberglass, epoxy resin) in wind turbine blades have made recycling these more challenging; however, the industry has made great strides towards blade recycling options, which will continue to increase the percentage of total recyclable material in wind turbines, including developing more easily recyclable blades¹⁵ and redirecting blades as an input into thermal electricity generation or into industrial processes like cement production.¹⁶ The industry is confident that these and other recycling and repurposing technologies will continue to advance and increase the percentage of recyclable material in wind turbines by the time that our project is fully decommissioned.