Mason wind farm
Mason County News, www.masoncountynews.com 23 March 2011
This morning I was forwarded a letter published in an earlier issue which contains a substantial error. The interconnection proposal that will allow construction to begin on the Mason Mountain Wind Farm is not regulated by the LCRA as was stated. It is being considered by ERCOT, the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas. We just can’t blame everything we don’t like here on LCRA..
ERCOT is specifically exempted from the Texas Open Public Records Act, and it is very difficult to get details about a pending application. All applications are treated as confidential until the permit is granted. All that I or anyone else here have been able to find out from ERCOT is that an application has been made by Mason Mountain Wind Farm LLC and is being considered to connect a 700mw wind farm in Mason County. The interconnection agreement is all that is needed to begin construction.
It was rumored that the new wind farm would connect to the grid through the 138kv AEP line that was an alternate route for the CREZ line. An AEP spokesman replied to me by e-mail that a connection contract had not been made.
The original easement/royalty agreements for the wind farm were made by Padoma Wind Energy, a San Diego, California, company. Padoma has since been bought by ENEL, a global supplier of energy partly owned and subsidized by the Italian government.
The actual construction of the wind farm has been let out for bid, and a map of the wind farm, part of the bid specs, has been obtained. A copy of the map was forwarded to Mason County News several weeks ago.
The landowners who are contracted with Padoma/ENEL are prominent citizens of Mason County, but they have made no effort to inform the other citizens of Mason of their plans.
Sincerely,
Dan Barton
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/03/23/mason-wind-farm/