The Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. added 535 MW of new gas-fired capacity in March, while generation interconnection requests for wind and coal projects surged ...As of March 31, ERCOT is now tracking 51,897 MW of generation interconnection requests for wind capacity, a 2,141-MW increase from 49,756 MW as of Feb. 28. Generation requests for coal projects jumped to 9,731 from 8,126 MW, while gas requests rose to 27,488 from 27,187 MW in February.

The Gillespie County Commissioners have decided not to pursue local wind farm regulation and will not hold a public meeting on the matter, according to County Judge Mark Stroeher. ...State Senator Troy Fraser filed legislation last month to allow the county commissioners to restrict wind farm construction and said his office immediately began receiving complaints from landowners worried that their property rights might be violated.

Property values are soaring in this West Texas community, and the reason is obvious. Looming on the northern horizon, hundreds of new wind turbines dot the once-barren hills. Ordinarily, much of the tax dollars generated by the turbines would go to the state's "Robin Hood" school finance plan, which requires property-rich districts to share their wealth with those less fortunate. But that won't happen in Sterling City, at least not if school officials have their way.

Perhaps the biggest mistake Texas power players are making during the current financial crisis is not implementing a capacity market to spur investment in new baseload projects, a group of panelists told a Gulf Coast Power Association conference Thursday in Houston. A substantial growth in wind generation in Texas has left a need for new baseload generation.

The Chestnut-collared Longspur winters in New Mexico and Texas, including parts of the Big Country, before migrating north to breed for the summer. The bird, however, has suffered a steep population decline, as have other species that follow the same migration pattern, according to a recent government report. The federal report says various factors - including energy production of all types, such as wind farms - have contributed to a 40-year decline in the national bird population.

Wind-farm developers, retail electric providers and others in Texas outlined their recommended approaches for dealing with overloaded power lines in areas with thousands of megawatts of wind farms, according to filings posted at the Public Utility Commission of Texas Thursday. Such congestion forces the curtailment of wind-turbine operations, so parties want to establish a system for priority dispatch of power generated by wind-turbines in the "competitive renewable energy zones" in Texas.

His company purchased 687 wind turbines from General Electric for $2 billion that can produce 1,000 MW and will be delivered in 2011. But there aren't yet any transmission lines from his wind park to the Texas grid to deliver the electricity to the Texans. Initially he was going to build the transmission lines himself, but now that's "questionable," he said during a stop in San Francisco Wednesday, part of a tour to promote his alternative-energy plan. A transmission line to the west or east from the Texas Panhandle, he told members of the press, is "a little bit big for us."

Construction on a $300 million San Patricio County wind energy facility will move forward on schedule after a compromise between the wind farm's owner and the Federal Aviation Administration was announced Monday. The project was in jeopardy after the FAA objected to 81 of 120 proposed sites for 109 wind turbines because of potential interference with a sombrero-shaped radio beacon that pilots can use to determine their proximity to Corpus Christi International Airport.

Kerr County commissioners have sent a message to Lower Colorado River Authority Transmission Services Corporation officials regarding possible routes for transmission lines in the area. "Go to another county," said Pct. 1 Commissioner Buster Baldwin during Monday's commission meeting. County commissioners also asked for the transmission lines to follow existing rights-of-way.

The rush of wind turbines is still a few years away, but questions about the best way to make them pay are here today. The uncertainty already has sparked a growing niche practice for law firms. Local attorneys primarily represent landowners who want to know the contracts they are signing with wind energy developers are fair. Not all the questions are easy to answer.

The Lower Colorado River Authority Transmission Services Corporation has proposed to construct several new electric transmission line facilities and add new transmission lines in Kerr and surrounding counties. The project is one of several recently approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and is intended to allow delivery of electric power produced from wind generators in West Texas and the panhandle known as “competitive renewable energy zones.”

Concerned about the possible effects of proposed wind power legislation on their property rights, some Fredericksburg area landowners have voiced opposition to a bill by State Senator Troy Fraser that would allow the Gillespie County Commissioners' Court to restrict wind farm construction. "Once the bill was filed, the phones started lighting up." Fraser said. "We need to gauge both support and opposition."

Llano and Gillespie counties may be granted regulatory teeth regarding the placement of wind turbines this legislative session. The Llano County Commissioners Court passed a resolution Monday supporting a bill that, if passed into law, would allow counties to prohibit or regulate construction of wind energy electric-generating facilities in all or part of the county. State Sen. Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay introduced S.B. 1226 and S.B. 1227 in February.

An energy company is considering adding as many as 30 windmills to the Texas City skyline. City commissioners on Wednesday approved a resolution supporting a study by Duke Energy of the feasibility of building a windmill farm at the site of the county water reservoir at state Highway 146 near Attwater Road in north Texas City. The cost of the project is estimated at more than $200 million.

The Gillespie County Commissioners' Court will be given the power to restrict wind farm construction if legislation filed Monday by State Senator Troy Fraser makes it through the Texas Legislature. "I think we have a good chance of getting it through my committee and through the senate," Fraser said. "It is very clear that the county judge and commissioners are asking for this authority."

Mesa Power said Monday it's cutting back on plans for a massive wind farm in the Panhandle, but is ready to move forward on the first phase of the project. ...Mesa said previously it will rely on the federal production tax credit for wind farms. Congress just renewed the program, which provides as much as one third of the income earned by wind farms, for three years.

Senator Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) filed legislation on Monday to authorize the Gillespie County Commissioners Court to regulate the construction of wind energy electric generating facilities in the unincorporated areas of the county. Senate Bill 1226 specifically will allow Gillespie County to prohibit or restrict the location of a facility in all or part of the county.

The West Central Texas area, centered on Abilene and Sweetwater, may be the wind energy capital of North America, but the wind farms have yet to meet their full production capacity. And they won't for at least a few more years. That's because the construction of wind farms has outpaced the capacity of transmission lines to ferry the energy to market. ...How much electricity generation is lost by having to curtail production for lack of transmission capacity is uncertain, said Roark.

The company that owns one of two wind farms in Kenedy County is going out of business. Australia-based investment firm Babcock & Brown, which developed the Gulf Wind project south of Sarita, has agreed to sell its assets over three years to repay about $2 billion in debt, Matt Dallas, Babcock & Brown spokesman, said. After these assets are sold, the firm will cease to exist, Dallas said.

Officials in Colleyville and Southlake have heard from residents interested in installing turbines on their property to reduce their electric bills and carbon footprints. Both cities are now looking at ways to regulate the structures before they begin transforming neighborhood landscapes. ...The turbines typically cost $9,000 to $15,000 to purchase and install - money that may take 15 years or more to get back through energy savings, according to several turbine dealers.