Gov. Rick Perry said Monday he has received a $10 billion investment guarantee from wind energy developers in exchange for the state’s assurance that the necessary power transmission lines will be built. Should the development come to fruition, the state would gain about 10,000 megawatts of power supplied by wind, enough to light up about 2.3 million homes. “Private companies are putting up their money instead of taxpayers putting up their money,” Perry said while flanked by executives from wind developers at Southern Methodist University. “The state of Texas will ensure we build the transmission capacity needed to deliver zero emission power source.” The agreement, though, is not formal and does not come with any binding contract between the state and energy companies touting plans to install more wind power generation, largely in West Texas.

LUBBOCK - Texas figures to lead the nation in renewable energy production by 2025 and stands to gain $22.8 billion in annual economic activity and 173,400 jobs overall, according to a study backed by a group that supports alternative sources of power.

The companies building Texas' $5 billion renewable-energy transmission network have decided against seeking stimulus funding that could have saved money for consumers. The decision was made last month in a little-noticed hearing of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where regulators agreed with the companies that stimulus funds came with regulations that could slow construction.

The Texas project, announced in June with plants scheduled to begin operations in 2014, is expected to be the first in a new wave of economical and emissions-free nuclear power plants.

A subsidiary of FPL Group has completed building a 662-megawatt wind farm in Texas, making it the largest U.S. wind farm.

Thousands of wind turbines in the US are sitting idle or failing to meet their full generating capacity because of a shortage of power lines able to transmit their electricity to the rest of the grid. The issue of transmission capacity will be high up the agenda as 10,000 wind power industry executives descend this week on Houston, Texas, where the shortage of power lines is hampering the state's alternative energy plans. ... A proposal for $6.4bn of new power lines linking new wind farms with the state's public electricity grid, whose cost will be borne mainly by consumers, is proving politically controversial. Wind farm developers are examining building their own private lines.

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.

The price tag to build new power lines to bring wind power to Texas' biggest cities could range from $3 billion to $9 billion, according to a report filed by the grid operator with state regulators. Following legislation passed in 2005, the Texas Public Utility Commission began working to speed up construction of high- voltage transmission lines to handle a ramp-up of renewable power. ...After identifying the areas with the best potential for new wind generation, the commission ordered the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to design routes to move 5,100 MW to 17,500 MW to the state's big cities.

"We've used Texas as the poster child for wind energy for the last five to six years," American Wind Energy Association official Kathy Belyeu told a group of wind industry professionals Tuesday. ...A major rap on wind power is that in West Texas and the Panhandle the wind often blows little during peak periods for electricity consumption but blows more at night, when power demand is lower. That's a problem.

The state of Texas will partner with private-sector parties to invest more than $10 billion in new wind energy infrastructure, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. The wind energy initiative will diversify the state's energy production, clean up the air and help Texas surpass its renewable energy goals, Perry said in an announcement Monday at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

THE Houses of Parliament may about to be powered by the tidal force of the River Thames and solar panels in a green makeover of the 140-year-old buildings. Under a plan to be considered by peers and MPs later this year, a network of turbines could be placed underwater near the Palace of Westminster.

Approval has now been granted for the construction of Thanet Offshore Wind Farm for which LDA Design undertook the Seascape, Visual and Cumulative Impact Assessment that was a core part of the Environmental Statement. Thanet Offshore Wind Farm will be sited 11km off North Foreland, Kent and will consist of 100 x 3MW turbines. The scheme is anticipated to be the first, and largest to date, of the Government's Round 2 Offshore Wind Farm developments and is due to come on line in 2008.

Fearing noise and bad looks, some communities are banning them.

Statewide standards for siting wind power projects adopted last year by the state Public Service Commission may be blocked from taking effect. The state Legislature's Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules has scheduled an executive session for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Madison. ...In a statement Monday, senior policy director Keith Reopelle at the environmental group Clean Wisconsin said the committee is expected to vote to suspend the new rule.

Wind power is sweeping the globe: It's clean energy, but it does have some dirty business aspects that hit the developing world particularly hard. This is part of the cover story package in the Jan. 30 issue of The Christian Science Monitor magazine.

In those glamour shots, wind power seems clean, free and infinitely abundant. Turbines spin silently and sometimes appear barely taller than a child. The wind blows constantly and in exactly the right amount-never so much that it piles up unwanted power and never so little that it requires backup supply. ...The problems come, of course, in the things glamour omits, including all those annoyingly practical concerns the policy wonks insist on debating.

Pressure is building for Oregon to require electric utilities to use substantially more renewable energy, such as wind and solar, to power homes and businesses. But a debate looms over whether such a mandate is needed -- or whether it might drive up monthly utility bills.

King's personal bailout came in the form of a $407,000 "success fee" he received in 2011 from a wind energy project that remains in business today only because it received a $102 million federal loan King played a major role in securing.

The long awaited Community Information day conducted in Scone by development group Pamada, did little to diffuse tensions over the proposed Kyoto Windfarm set to be constructed on the outskirts of Scone. ...Many questions were repeatedly met with, ‘the right answer to that, is I don't know', by Pamada Founder and Director Mark Sydney. The response only seemed to anger residents as they were forced to ask, ‘well if you don't know, then who does?' ...Likewise, another comment suggested the decision to place turbines atop the mountainous ranges over Scone was to act as a billboard for the government's support of green energy.

It is an island divided. The increasingly bitter debate over the giant Lewis wind farm will be rekindled this week as islanders wrestle again with the issue of whether an environmental price is worth paying for much needed jobs and local investment.