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China to supply turbines and funding for $1.5bn Texas wind farm
October 30, 2009 by Yvonne Chan in BusinessGreen
October 30, 2009 by Yvonne Chan in BusinessGreen
A Sino-US consortium yesterday announced plans for a US$1.5 billion, 600MW wind farm in Texas, with China supplying all the turbines and most of the funding.
The 36,000-acre wind farm ...is a joint venture between state-backed Chinese firm Shenyang Power Group, US wind farm developer Cielo Wind Power and private equity firm US Renewable Energy Group.
Most of the funding for the project will come from Chinese banks, with loan guarantees and grants provided by the US federal government's economic stimulus package.
Texas, which produces more energy than any other U.S. state, may see a slowdown in expanding wind generation this year and in 2010 as low natural-gas prices make new plants less profitable, state utility regulator Barry Smitherman said.
A doubling of wind-generated electric capacity anticipated in Texas by 2015 will alter operations of every power plant in the state, industry sources said on Wednesday.
The rise in wind to an expected 18,500 megawatts of installed capacity will force aging, natural gas-fired power plants to shut, limit output at times from coal-fired plants and create a need for nimble, simple-cycle gas plants that investors are wary to build in the current market, said members of an industry panel at the Gulf Coast Power Association conference.
Wind energy leaders discuss turbine challenges
October 2, 2009 by Bob Geiger in Finance and Commerce
October 2, 2009 by Bob Geiger in Finance and Commerce
As 37-mile-per-hour gusts blasted downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, hundreds of wind-energy executives were inside the Minneapolis Hilton, discussing the challenges their industry still faces.
Chief among those challenges: weather-related down times and - perhaps more surprisingly - utilities unwilling to accept energy from wind farms because their high-voltage transmission lines can't accept any more power.
World's largest wind farm opens in West Texas
September 30, 2009 by Dallas Morning News in Elizabeth Souder
September 30, 2009 by Dallas Morning News in Elizabeth Souder
German power giant E.On is expected to announce on Thursday that the world's largest wind farm, close to Sweetwater, Texas, is open for business and generating juice.
The wind farm in Roscoe, just west of Sweetwater, boasts 627 wind turbines, with a total capacity of 781.5 megawatts. ...As some wind farm developers slow down in Texas, E.On keeps building.
If you've been driving around the Permian Basin lately, you probably aren't as likely to have gotten stuck behind a truck pulling a giant wind turbine blade.
While wind energy projects are still going on in other parts of West Texas, Gary Vest, economic development director for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, said it would be a while before they start back up in the counties around Odessa.
"It's kind of on hold," he said. "Any of them that are in progress already are still going, but they haven't been starting any new ones."
Companies are waiting until construction on a $4.93 billion plan to connect transmission lines from West Texas to the state's population centers is closer to completion, Vest said. That isn't expected until 2013.
Baylor County wind project afoot; Electricity job still in process of development
September 25, 2009 by Lee Anderson in Times Record News
September 25, 2009 by Lee Anderson in Times Record News
Carter Wind Energy, in partnership with landowners in the Seymour area, is in the process of developing a project to harness the wind to generate electricity in Baylor County.
Matt Carter, president of the company, said plans call for developing an anticipated 80MW (megawatts) Community Wind Energy Project on 8,000 acres.
Advocates concerned Austin Energy plans will hurt poor, elderly
September 21, 2009 by Marty Toohey in The Austin Statesman
September 21, 2009 by Marty Toohey in The Austin Statesman
As she sat at a small sunlit table by her apartment window, near the wheelchair and oxygen tank in the corner, Leona Morgan ticked off her monthly spending list.
Rent: $550. Groceries: $300. Medicine for anemia, a heart condition and other ailments: $50 beyond what's covered by government health programs. Electric bill: $93.87 in August.
"My income just barely covers what I have to spend," said Morgan, a sprightly, bone-thin 86-year-old, contemplating the possibility of soaring electric bills.
Universities and businesses across Texas are expecting to spend millions in the next few years honing the blades, gearboxes and generators that make up turbines designed to harness power from the wind.
The work, including studies slated for a new University of Houston research park as well as at a massive, 22-acre testing operation planned near Corpus Christi, all has a common goal: developing a new generation of efficient and reliable wind turbines.
Also filed under [
USA]
Lawsuit could affect Kenedy County wind farms; GE contends Mitsubishi used protected technology
September 5, 2009 by Dan Kelley in Caller Times
September 5, 2009 by Dan Kelley in Caller Times
General Electric has sued Mitsubishi Heavy Industry in federal court over three wind energy patents. Two South Texas wind projects use Mitsubishi turbines.
GE says Mitsubishi used protected technology that allows a wind turbine to provide a constant, steady stream of electricity to the electrical grid when wind speed changes.
Renewable or nuclear energy? That's just one question
August 30, 2009 by Anton Caputo in San Antonio Express-News
August 30, 2009 by Anton Caputo in San Antonio Express-News
When it comes to the biggest decision facing CPS - how to meet the energy shortage looming in the next decade or so - utility officials are adamant that renewable resources like solar and wind are not yet ready to shoulder the lion's share of the load.
The proposed solution instead is to add two nuclear reactors to the South Texas Project. Utility officials insist the proposed $5.2 billion investment is cheaper and more reliable than solar or wind.
The situation has the local anti-nuclear coalition Energia Mia and statewide renewable energy proponents outraged.
Also filed under [
Energy Policy]
Large turbines often a surprise; Developers not required to tell public of their plans
August 16, 2009 by Dan Kelley in Caller Times
August 16, 2009 by Dan Kelley in Caller Times
John Hearn hopes someday to sell some of his 650 acres bordering the King Ranch for development. Maybe not in his lifetime, but probably in his children's.
But Hearn worries of another kind of development, one that he fears will devalue his property: a large wind farm in the Chapman Ranch area.
Local farmers have told him that a company has been signing leases. But it has been difficult to determine what, if anything, will be built.
No serious injuries in wind tower lightning strike
August 15, 2009 by Jennifer Rios in San Angelo Standard-Times
August 15, 2009 by Jennifer Rios in San Angelo Standard-Times
Lightning that struck a wind turbine tower Wednesday near U.S. Highway 87 between Sterling City and Big Spring sent four men to a nearby hospital, a General Electric Co. official said.
The four employees drove themselves to the hospital and were checked out as a precaution, GE spokeswoman Melissa Rocker said.
Wind and wildlife: Panhandle power - More research needed on effect of wind turbines on ecosystems
August 9, 2009 by Kevin Welch in Amarillo Globe-News
August 9, 2009 by Kevin Welch in Amarillo Globe-News
As the wind-energy industry continues to grow, state officials are developing guidelines to help wildlife and wind turbines coexist on the High Plains, a first step that may serve as a blueprint for the rest of Texas.
"We're trying to get Panhandle-specific guidelines that would include the lesser-prairie chicken," said Kathy Boydston, program leader for wildlife habitat assessment at the state Parks & Wildlife Department.
Also filed under [
Impact on Wildlife]
Texas wind farms reap N.C. dollars; Utilities look out of state to meet green-energy targets
July 30, 2009 by John Murawski in Charlotte Observer
July 30, 2009 by John Murawski in Charlotte Observer
The answer to North Carolina's green energy challenge is blowing in the wind-swept mesas of Texas.
With the first deadlines fast approaching for North Carolina's renewable energy targets, power companies in this state are snapping up green certificates from out-of-state wind farms. The certificates don't buy electricity, but pay for credits needed to meet state targets.
Also filed under [
North Carolina]
San Patricio County wants turbines if they don't interfere with airport
July 27, 2009 by Jaime Powell in Caller Times
July 27, 2009 by Jaime Powell in Caller Times
San Patricio County Commissioner Jim Price, a private pilot, contends that because 19 of roughly 100 turbines planned by E.ON Climate & Renewables North America Inc. fall within four miles of the T.P. McCampbell Airport, they jeopardize the approach to a runway.
In the line of ire: Wind power wanted, but getting here from there proves touchy
July 22, 2009 by Asher Price in Austin American-Statesman
July 22, 2009 by Asher Price in Austin American-Statesman
Between the windy flats of West Texas, where wind farms have sprouted like bluebonnets, and the population centers of the central and eastern parts of the state, where electricity is consumed at a growing rate, sits the rolling land of the Hill Country.
Landowners there are banding together in the face of a state plan to ship wind power across the area on transmission lines built and operated by the Lower Colorado River Authority.
All Austinites may soon shoulder extra green energy costs
July 17, 2009 by Marty Toohey in Austin American-Statesman
July 17, 2009 by Marty Toohey in Austin American-Statesman
Austin's electric utility could soon reverse a long-standing practice of selling wind, solar and other renewable energy only to customers who choose to buy it, four Austin City Council members and a mayoral aide said this week.
The council's ambitious goal of getting 30 percent of the city's electricity from renewable sources by 2020 could be in jeopardy if Austin Energy relies exclusively on its landmark GreenChoice program.
Austin's clean energy program costing more, selling less
July 12, 2009 by Marty Toohey in American-Statesman
July 12, 2009 by Marty Toohey in American-Statesman
For the past decade, Austin's ambition to become the world's clean-energy capital has been best exemplified by one effort: GreenChoice, a program that sells electricity generated entirely from renewable sources such as wind.
Now the nationally renowned program is struggling to find buyers - the latest allotment is 99 percent unsold after seven months on the market - and Austin Energy is looking for ways to bring down the rising costs. ...It now costs almost three times more than the standard electricity rate.
A sense of foreboding has engulfed this rural town since word spread that huge towers carrying power lines soon may punctuate its ruggedly beautiful landscape.
"It's a big deal to have something of that massive size come through here," Kimble County Judge Andy Murr said. "There are very few large transmission lines through the county."