Wind Power News: Texas
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Billionaire begins to obtain easements
LUBBOCK — Cecil Martin is none too pleased at the prospect of losing part of his home in the Texas Panhandle to make way for billionaire T. Boone Pickens’ water and wind energy projects.
Depending on the precise location of the outer most marker of the easement being sought by Pickens’ projects, the 68-year-old Martin said, he’d have one less room in his Gray County home.
“They’ll either get the kitchen or the front porch,” he said. …
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Texas wind: Boone Pickens' big, big bet
Oilman T. Boone Pickens’ love affair with wind isn’t brand new—he’s been touting the idea of “peak-free” energy since he decided to build America’s biggest wind farm in Texas. What’s different is the way he’s going about it.
Mesa Power, Mr. Pickens’ new energy firm, placed a huge turbine order with GE Thursday, the first step toward the eventual 4 gigawatt wind farm. What’s striking is that he’s plowing ahead on the project even though federal …
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Pickens-led water, power project stirs concerns
Miles of rolling grassland and mesquite surround Kenneth Horton’s hilltop home, carpeting a view that reaches beyond the Red River on a clear day and into stars tossed like sand across the inky, rural night.
He can tour pioneer dugouts and American Indian sites tucked throughout the few thousand acres of ranchland near Quanah his family has held for more than a century. For the past 25 years, he’s opened the land to hunters from the …
Pickens sends landowners letters
Energy tycoon plans to build water/electricity pipeline through North Texas
A select number of property owners from Childress to Jacksboro learned this week that T. Boone Pickens would like to do a little business with them.
The man who has made billions in gas, oil and hedge funds has an ambitious plan to build a combination water pipeline and electric transmission line from Roberts County in the Panhandle to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Landowners along …
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Lawsuit brought against Taylor County Commissioners Court for tax abatements
Two area wind energy opponents filed a lawsuit Monday against the Taylor County Commissioners Court for granting what the plaintiffs say are illegal tax abatements to wind farms developed within the county.
According to the lawsuit, wind energy equipment is not eligible for tax abatements under the state tax code.
In 2004 and 2006, Taylor County commissioners granted five tax abatements potentially worth $5 million to $10 million to three companies that have built farms of wind …
Wind farm proposed for NW Parker County
Winds of change are blowing.
Fuel prices are soaring, so that makes everything associated with renewable energy a hot-button topic.
And, potentially profitable.
So when a wind farm was proposed for Northwest Parker County offering royalties and bonuses similar to those being paid by gas producers, many locals took notice.
However, one resident who attended an informational meeting at Poolville, hosted by international conglomerate PPM Energy, hopes the company takes their windmills elsewhere.
Tom Butt, a retiree with a small …
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Low emissions, but critics claim other environmental concerns
Install some wind turbines, generate energy with almost no emissions and everyone’s happy. It’s easier said than done.
Two wind farms, part of a $2 billion project, have been proposed near Hebbronville, just east of Laredo. Corpus Christi-based American Shoreline and its partner, San Diego, Calif.-based Eviva Spinnaker, plan to develop the 800-megawatt wind project.
It calls for 400 turbines about 350 feet tall spread out over 35,000 acres in Jim Hogg, Webb and Zapata counties. …
Man injured after fall inside wind turbine
A 29-year-old contractor for Global Windpower Services fell 50 to 60 feet inside the shaft of a wind turbine on Wednesday, breaking ribs and a leg, rescue officials said.
His fall was broken by a metal deck about 12 feet above the ground, according to Lt. Greg Goettsch, spokesman for the Abilene Fire Department. The man was conscious when rescuers arrived.
The accident happened off U.S. 277, about two and one-half miles south of Farm Road 89 …
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Wind generation farm getting closer to reality
MUENSTER — A logo of a wolf howling at the moon amid a silhouette of the familiar trident-shape of a wind generator tower marks the entrance to the site of the most activity the northwest part of Cooke County has seen in some time.
And within a month or so, anyone from within miles of the project will be able to see what’s going up in what real estate agents have promoted as the Hill Country …
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Big oil to big wind: Texas veteran sets up $10bn clean energy project
T Boone Pickens is famous for thinking big. He founded his Texan oil company, Mesa Petroleum, in 1956 with just $2,500 (£1,200) in the bank. After a string of audacious takeovers he turned it into an independent empire that challenged the big oil companies, and today he is worth $3bn.
Now this straight-talking Southerner is launching the biggest and most audacious project of his career. This month he will make the first down payment on 500 …
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