Winds of Power
Where is the most wind power produced in the United States? If you think it’s California, then you’ve picked the second biggest wind producer with 2,439 megawatts of installed power. The correct answer is Texas with a staggering 4,356 megawatts of wind power and another 1,238 under construction (California only has 165 under construction). This New York Times article has a great analysis of wind power here in Texas and why it’s growing so rapidly.
There are a few reasons in particular. One is that Texas is a vast state with both large empty plains and large cities that consume power. The second is that a single state controls the utilities connecting everything - you don’t have to figure out how to move power from one state to another. But the biggest is that Texans like making money from energy, especially when we make it ourselves. Quoting the Times who interviewed local billionaire T. Boone Pickens:
“I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.
His windmill plans include a 4,000 megawatt site, while separately Shell and TXU are planning a 3,000 megawatt site in the panhandle. All told, Texas is looking to have over 12,000 megawatts within a few years. That’s equivalent to 4-5 large power plants (for perspective, the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station near Bay City generates 2,500 megawatts).
The wealth generated by wind power is plainly staggering. Entire West Texas towns are suddenly prospering, and one rancher mentioned in the article receives $500 per month per windmill. He has 78 today and another 76 coming, yielding almost $1 million a year for the value of capturing some wind flowing over his property.
On the other hand, not all Texas counties are alike. The map on this page (scroll down) breaks down the wind power available in different regions of the state, showing outstanding opportunities in the panhandle, the Pecos mountains, and along the coast. East Texas, sadly, is a little more out of luck. However, the possibilities are enormous for the future. Read Table 3 and you’ll see that the medium wind regions alone can power 371% of the state’s electrical needs.
I love the idea of wind power, and as the technology improves it’s only going to get cheaper. One doesn’t need to dig too deeply to see that there are tremendous opportunities here for making money, especially if you own land in one of these windy regions. The rest of the country will catch on soon enough, and pretty soon I think we will see wind farms up and down the plains.
