A new $6.8-billion project is expected to help Texas double it’s total installed wind power by 2013. The project isn’t a wind farm, though. It’s a transmission project that would connect more remote areas (where wind is likely to be generated) to major cities, like Dallas and San Antonio.
Laborers are working overtime on the project. The Texas Tribune reports:
“We’re going to work 12 hours a day through Thanksgiving,” said Pat Hogan, a consultant with McCurley Enterprises, a company helping with the construction. The only real break comes around mid-afternoon on Sundays when, he said, “you can get your clothes cleaned or go to the grocery store.”
As reported last week, Texas just broke a wind power output record on October 7 when wind turbines in the service territory of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) produced 15.2% of the region’s electricity (7,400 megawatts).
Wind power is cheap as heck and brings the cost of electricity down (as also reported last week, it brought the wholesale cost of electricity down to $0.00 a week and a half ago), so I don’t think too many Texans will complain about the state’s ambitious goals.
Currently, Texas has about 10,000 MW of wind power installed (much more than the second-biggest wind power state, Iowa, which has under 4,000 MW). It gets about 8% of its electricity from wind power. Will we see 20,000 MW of wind power producing 16% of Texas’ electricity by 2013?
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