Iberdrola Renewables has completed development of a new wind farm near the Texas Gulf Coast that will supply renewable energy to CPS Energy customers. CPS Energy has a 15-year contract in place with Iberdrola to purchase 76.8 megawatts of energy from the Peñascal Wind Farm. ...The wind farm has been fitted with 84 Mitsubishi turbines with a total generating capacity of 202 megawatts.

General Texas

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.

General Texas

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.

General Texas

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.

General Texas

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.

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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.

General Texas

The state's electricity regulator has set in motion a process that will more than triple the capacity of infrastructure to carry electricity from West Texas wind farms to the state's big cities. The Public Utility Commission of Texas cleared 13 companies to build transmission lines at a total projected cost of nearly $5 billion - a move that could jump-start construction of additional wind turbines in the Concho Valley and across West Texas, local leaders said.

General Texas

A wind-farm developer with a troubled parent but big plans for the Panhandle tried Tuesday to confirm its commitment to the project. Babcock & Brown Renewable Holdings filed a letter Tuesday with the Public Utilities Commission explaining why it withdrew its letter of credit for a 1,000-megawatt wind farm it still plans to build in Carson and Gray counties.

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Turbines at two new wind farms in Kenedy County have begun spinning, but it likely will be several more months before all 200 of them are operating, a spokeswoman for the two companies said. ...Officials with both companies have said they are not sure when all turbines will be operating. However, ERCOT says all of Gulf Winds' turbines are expected to be online by September 2010.

General Texas

Texas' main electric grid operator is proposing $3 billion in new high-voltage transmission line projects over the next five years, according to a report released Wednesday. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas' annual report does not include the approximately $5 billion in projects proposed to connect West Texas wind power to parts of the state with the highest demand for electricity.

General Texas

Gillespie County Commissioners adopted a resolution opposing the development of transmission line routes other than the approved Public Utility Commission (PUC) plan Monday morning during their regular meeting. Al Weinzierl, steering committee member for an informal group of Harper citizens opposed to the construction of private transmission lines, presented the resolution to the court. Landowners in Harper were first contacted in late July by Hilliard Energy, a Midland-based company trying to negotiate 180-foot land easements on behalf of Florida Power and Light (FPL) Energy for a private transmission line separate from the approved PUC line.

General Texas

A former Public Utility Commission chairman discussed the growth of wind power in Texas during an annual meeting of Save Our Scenic Hill Country Environment held yesterday in Fredericksburg. ...The local group, which held their annual meeting yesterday at the Central Texas Electrical Co-op building, opposes construction of wind turbines and private transmission lines in the Hill Country.

General Texas

Falling energy prices have forced billionaire oilman and investor T. Boone Pickens to trim spending on his renewable energy campaign and put his West Texas wind farm project on hold. When Pickens launched his plan this summer to boost the use of wind and natural gas to ease American dependence on foreign oil, gasoline prices were at a record $4.11 a gallon and oil prices were at $147 a barrel.

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A falling section of a lattice tower used for wind measurements caused the death of a contract worker on Sunday at a Kenedy County wind farm, his employer said Tuesday. Matthew Peterson, a 25-year-old test technician, died while working at Babcock and Brown Ltd.'s Gulf Winds project ...The Kenedy County Sheriff's Office was called to the wind farm at about 6 p.m. on Sunday. Peterson, employed out of GEC's Seattle office, was working with another man when the injury occurred, Richardsen said. The other man was not injured, he added.

General Texas

Although T. Boone Pickens has become somewhat of a celebrity as of late - giving speeches and appearing on national television in interviews and commercials - the Oklahoma native is finding falling energy prices are making it difficult for his eponymous Pickens Plan to gain traction. Furthermore, a host of other outside factors have cropped up to make the Texas oilman's push for renewable energy increasingly difficult ...Depressed fuel prices, while easier on consumers' wallets, hinder efforts to persuade companies and individuals to invest in renewable energy resources, especially when combined with a shortage of discretionary cash.

General USA Texas

T. Boone Pickens' $10 billion wind farm - the cornerstone of his plan to build thousands of wind turbines from Texas to Canada - is about to be downsized because the oil tycoon can't raise money in the current credit crunch, the billionaire confirmed to the Observer. ...Asked about his plans to build a giant wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, Pickens said: "I've started it, but let's don't go into that, my project is getting ready to get downsized pretty quick. "You can't get financing," he said. "But that will all come back."

General USA Texas

According to wind developer FPL, wind conditions over the 3rd financial quarter were the least productive in the last 3 decades in the Great Plains -- go figure. Over the quarter, wind power generation came in 38% below expected totals, down 47% in September alone.

General USA Texas

Higher than expected construction costs has a wind-tower manufacturing company asking for more money -- $700,000, to be exact -- from the city of Abilene's economic development arm. According to Development Corporation of Abilene records, Tower Tech Systems, Inc., now estimate construction and equipment costs will reach $27 million, or about $7 million more as was estimated in DCOA's original assistance package.

Taxes & Subsidies General Texas

Wind power developer Higher Perpetual Energy and turbine manufacturer DeWind are on their way to spending about $1.2 billion to boost wind energy in the Panhandle. The plan is for a total of 310 turbines across the region in three years. The pair are finishing two small wind farms, with two larger ones on the drawing board. "The small ones will be very profitable," said David Tatton, president of Higher Perpetual Energy. "But they are also test projects for the teams working together."

General Texas

More than 100 people gathered at the Morgan Mill Community Center Oct. 13 to hear more information about the wind turbine industry. Robert Weatherford and Bill Renfro from Fredericksburg gave a presentation about how Gillespie County residents have handled wind turbine companies in their area. According to a meeting report from Gary Key, a non-profit organization supported by more than 300 residents encouraged companies to consider areas in West Texas that produce more wind.

General Texas