Texas To Build Wind Power Superhighway
We’ve all heard of the Information Superhighway; Now it’s time to welcome the Wind Power Superhighway.
In what is purported to be the largest investment in clean, renewable energy in US history, Texas has been given preliminary approval for a $4.9 billion plan to build transmission lines to carry wind power from West Texas to urban areas such as Dallas.
Texas is already the national leader in wind power, but the new transmission lines will make sure wind energy is used to its fullest potential, since most of Texas’ wind power is produced in windy West Texas. The new plan won’t directly create new turbines, but it will add enough transmission lines to move 18,000 megawatts. That’s enough energy to power 4 million homes.
The superhighway won’t just help facilitate the spread of wind power; supporters think it will also create jobs, lower energy costs, and reduce pollution.
Texas citizens will have to assist with the plan’s construction; they will pay an extra $3 to $4 per month on their bills for the next few years. But this pales in comparison to the amount they can save with lower energy prices.
Renewable energy companies are eager to jump on the bandwagon. Yesterday, Oncor, an electric distribution and transmission business, filed with the Public Utility Commission in Texas to indicate its desire to build a large portion of the superhighway.
With a proposal that could provide Texas with more wind energy than the next 14 states combined, perhaps the state’s legacy will be one of wind, not oil.
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TBone will use imminent domain to acquire the right-of-way to transmit the power. Unfortunate but somewhat necessary to take advantage of renewable resource. He will also use the right-of-way to build his pipeline to sell water from the Ogallala Aquifer. This is a project he has been working on for over a decade and sunk billions into. No one is sure of the environmental impact, but this is more than a happy coincidence. He is definitely not an altruistic investor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer
It all adds up. Wind power is one more chunk bitten out of the oil monopoly. Go Texas.
I am also proud of Iowas contribution. We have 4 companies making wind power components and a lot of windmills at work.
larryhagedon
American Flex Fuel Experience.
AmericanFFE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
not only it will reduce pollution but also unwanted bird population..yay!
at the cost of $4.00 per month for God known’s how long on everyone’s bill. T. Boone not doing this out of goodness of his wallet, he not going to spend his own money to make. he’s F@##ing every electric user in Texas
This new transmission infrastructure will be able to move not only wind power but any renewable power such as solar to the demand area. Texas has tremendous solar resources and they can augment wind in the same geographical area and produce peak power to compliment the night power of wind.
agreed, texans will get NOTHING out of this. We will have to pay this additional tax and wind will not satisfy us. What happens when it is 110F and NO WIND. We do not store power…read BROWNOUTS!!!
constant power is the solution (or several alt solutions)
Good news,if such a system is successful it will be a role model for many other new similar projects in other states as well.
Some misconceptions here.
First, this is not Mr. Pickens’s plan. He’s working on a separate project that will have its own transmission line (and add another 4,000 megawatts to Texas’s total).
Second, the basis for the decision is that the transmission lines will save money for utility customers, as wind power displaces electricity generated with natural gas. Projections suggest that the lines should pay for themselves in 3-4 years.
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
http://www.powerofwind.org
http://www.awea.org
http://www.20percentwind.org
The main issue I actually see with this is the “if you build it, they will come” argument. They’re blindly facilitating a modestly beneficial practice with a very large sum of money without particularly claiming to have any developer or energy company backing them.
With that kind of money, It’d be possible to trim energy demands through high-development-density contemporary urban design focusing on compact industrial development, industrial waste symbiosis and district overlay zoning giving incentives by lowered property taxes and removing impact fees.
High-density, adaptable environments have a bigger tax basin per acre to drawn on at higher densities with less administration, operation and maintenance fees allowing for recycling, clean liquid waste incineration, clean sorted garbage incineration, sewer gas reclamation (can replace gas used in high-temp furnaces) and district HVAC systems. Reconfiguring urban environments is not only smart but extremely profitable while solving most cultural, financial and environmental issues.
Very good.
This is a good devlopment for future of human being.