Potential $1 Billion of Additional Wind Development
March 18, 2006
Victor Carrillo, a member of the Texas Railroad Commission and chairman of the Texas Energy Planning Council, spoke along with several others Friday to about 70 West Texas businessmen and community leaders and officials at Texas State Technical College in Sweetwater. Also speaking were Greg Wortham, executive director of the West Texas Wind Energy Consortium, state Rep. Bob Hunter, and Mike Sloan, managing consultant for the Wind Coalition, a non-profit group that promotes the development of wind energy. They called for support of efforts to allow more wind energy development. Officals say it will bring clean energy and economic development into the area. The state has nearly 2,000 megawatts of installed wind power capacity. It is expected that this number will surge to 5,000 in the next decade.Last month, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas released a preliminary list of counties identified as most suitable for wind energy development. The final areas targeted for development should be designated by the Publilc Utility Commission of Texas later this year. Wortham said that's why people need to talk about it now, so that West Texas will be chosen for more development. He said that building in West Texas makes sense because electric lines and more turbines can be built quickly and cheaply in sparsely populated areas without causing disruption.
According to a press release from the consortium, for each West Texas zone that is chosen, transmission lines would be built or upgraded. That translates into potentially more than $1 billion worth of additional wind development, transmission construction and tax base.
