Pickens Starting Massive Wind Farm in Texas
Billionaire T. Boone Pickens said he is placing an order to buy 667 wind turbines from General Electric as part of an estimated $2 billion in startup costs for his four phase Pampa Wind Project in west Texas. Pickens' Mesa Power LLP will buy the GE turbines, which will be capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 300,000 average US homes when built by the end of 2011. When complete, the Pampa Wind Project will cover some 400,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle in project billed as the world's largest, with an expected completion in 2014. It'll generate 4,000 megawatts, enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes.
"You find an oilfield, it peaks and starts declining, and you've got to find another one to replace it," said Pickens, who once operated one of the largest independent oil and gas production companies. "It can drive you crazy. With wind, there's no decline curve."
"As America's demand for energy escalates, it is clear that wind can and will play a bigger part in meeting that need," GE CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt said.
The purchase marks a major step forward for Pickens' wind project, which was formally filed with Texas regulators in August of last year.
"It's clear that landowners and local officials understand the economic benefits that this renewable energy can bring not only to landowners who are involved with the project, but also in revitalizing an area that has struggled in recent years," Pickens said.
Pickens called on the extension of the Federal Production Tax Credit for alternative energy, which is set to expire at the end of the year. "I believe that Congress will recognize that it is critical not only to this project, but to renewable energy in this country, that they enact a longterm extension of the Production Tax Credits," Pickens said.
A study by Austin based Resource Inc. commissioned by Mesa Power projects an estimated 1,500 jobs during the construction phase, and 720 during a typical year of the operation for the Pampa wind farm. The Pampa project is ramping up amid an expected record year in 2008 for wind farm construction with 1,400 megawatts installed in the first quarter alone, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
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