Sweetwater is in our future
By Lew
October 28, 2004
Carrillo gets charge out of wind farm
He says state should make wind energy a priority
By Jerry Daniel Reed / Reporter-News Staff Writer
October 28, 2004
SWEETWATER - The West Texas wind behaved on cue for Railroad Commission Chairman Victor Carrillo on his first up-close look at a power-generating wind turbine.
Carrillo, former Taylor County Judge, Abilene city councilman and Hardin-Simmons University professor, visited American Electric Power's 100-unit Trent Mesa wind farm west of Trent and east of Sweetwater. Nearby storms kicked up winds above 25 miles per hour at times.
Year-round, the average wind speed at the site is about 19 mph, said Bryan Gregory, site manager for GE Wind Energy, which maintains the Trent Mesa Project for AEP.
''This is an excellent area for wind development,'' Carrillo said.
West Texas, from Abilene west to the McCamey area and north into the Panhandle, holds the state's prime wind-energy potential. The state's Gulf Coast, both on-shore and off, is another possibility, Carrillo said.
Republican Carrillo faces Democrat Bob Scarborough in the general election Tuesday for a seat on the Railroad Commission.
Three Taylor County commissioners accompanied Carrillo and representatives of AEP and GE Wind Energy. He said the state should step up its ambition for electricity-generating capacity from renewable energy, from 2,000 megawatts in 2009 - 3 percent of the state's total generated electricity - to 5,000 megawatts in 2012, and set a 10,000 megawatt target for 2020.
Commissioners last week approved a 10-year tax abatement for AEP to extend its string of wind turbines eastward into Taylor County in the Merkel-Trent area. Nolan County commissioners had previously granted a tax abatement to install more turbines in that county.
Ninety-nine of the 100 Trent Mesa turbines are in Nolan County, with the 100th in Taylor County.
The steel towers housing the turbines are 213 feet tall, and the three blades on each tower are each 114 feet long, said Gregory. Each unit has a generating capacity of 1.5 megawatts.
AEP expects to install a combined total of 90 to 120 megawatts in Taylor and Nolan counties.
The present 100-turbine, 150-megawatt Trent Mesa Project has the capacity to serve about 35,000 homes.
Several months ago, commissioners granted tax abatements to Florida Power & Light and SeaWest Power of California to build wind-energy projects in central and west central Taylor County. Those two companies combined plan to install more than 100 1.5 megawatt turbines in the county.
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