Skip to content

Palo Verde nuclear power plant

Palo Verde nuclear power plant is a nuclear power station in United States with 3 operating units totalling 4,242 MW gross. The site has 5 units on record in total.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICAMEXICOPalo Verde nuclear power plant: 3 units, 4,242 MWPalo Verde100 km
Operating1circle area ∝ site capacity Coastlines, borders and lakes: Natural Earth (1:10 million, public domain), which is generalised, so a coastal plant can sit a couple of kilometres off its true shoreline. Site positions: Global Nuclear Power Tracker.
Units on record
5
Operating
3
Operating capacity
4,242MW

Units

UnitStatusTypeModelGross MWOnline
Unit 1 Operating PWR CE80 2LP (DRYAMB) 1,414 1986
Unit 2 Operating PWR CE80 2LP (DRYAMB) 1,414 1986
Unit 3 Operating PWR CE80 2LP (DRYAMB) 1,414 1988
Unit 4 Cancelled PWR - 1,270 -
Unit 5 Cancelled PWR - 1,270 -

Palo Verde nuclear power plant in context

By gross operating capacity Palo Verde nuclear power plant is the 2nd largest of 54 operating nuclear sites in the United States, holding 4% of the country's operating capacity, and ranks 19th of 172 worldwide.

Its operating units started up between 1986 and 1988; the median unit is 40.0 years old, younger than the median of 45.0 in the United States.

The 3 units with both construction and grid dates on record took 9.0 to 11.5 years (median 10.0) from construction start to grid connection; the median across all reactors connected in the 1980s is 7.3 years.

No other nuclear site with an exact position in this dataset lies within 300 km.

3 operating units are rated differently now from their design net capacities: Unit 1 +7.4%, Unit 2 +0.8% and Unit 3 +0.6%.

Build time by unit

UnitConstruction startGrid connectionYearsFleet median, same decade
Unit 1197619859.07.3 (1980s)
Unit 21976198610.07.3 (1980s)
Unit 31976198711.57.3 (1980s)

How these are worked out: ranks use gross operating capacity; ages count from the start-up year on record, as on the age page; build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the build-times page; ratings are the tracker's net and design net capacity, as on the uprates page. Distances are straight-line between exact positions, so a site with only an approximate position gets none. A unit missing a date or a rating is left out of the figure that needs it.

Site detail
LocationArizona, United States
Coordinates33.3881, -112.8617
Elevationabout 290 mabove sea level
SettingAbout 220 km from the sea
RegionNorthern America
Units by status
Operating: 3
Cancelled: 2

Elevation is read at the listed coordinates from a 30 m terrain model (SRTM 30 m). Two independent models differ by a median of 6 m across our plants and by up to about 40 m on steep or coastal ground, and a point on a shoreline can read as sea level. Distance to the water is measured to a generalised 1:10 million coastline, so a few kilometres or less is not resolved. This is context, not a design-basis or flood-risk figure.

Owners & operators
Owners
Arizona Public Service Co
Operators
Arizona Public Service

Put this plant on your own page: embed a card, or compare it with another plant.

Sources

How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data

Try

Searches every page: 1,823 reactors, 592 plants, 158 fuel chain facilities, companies, designs, accidents and notes.