Turbines feasible at fairgrounds?
Beth Wilson of Caller.Times reports.
08/28/08: Robstown's winds could power the county's fairgrounds if a feasibility study shows whirring blades of wind turbines would be a fit for the complex.
The Nueces County Commissioners Court decided Wednesday to hire Mike Sloan, whose brochure presented to the court describes him as a renewable energy project consultant with 20 years' experience.
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PUC Gathering the Western Wind
Daniel Mottola of The Austin Chronicle reports
08/1/08: In July, the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved a plan to build nearly 5 billion dollars' worth of power lines to carry wind-generated electricity from West Texas' booming wind farms to the state's major cities, including Austin. The decision will boost Texas' standing as the nation's No. 1 wind-producing state, while supplying enough new energy to power roughly 4.6 million homes. Advocates say the plan could cut statewide electric bills, create in excess of 8,000 new jobs, and even serve future West Texas solar farms. But the decision over just how much line capacity to approve wasn't without turbulence. Some observers cast the debate as a showdown between status-quo fossil-fuel forces protecting their turf and a large contingent of investors struggling to bring something new and clean to the market. In the end, the PUC chose a compromise plan that will vastly boost the state's wind capacity. But many believe regulators missed a rare opportunity by not picking the most ambitious power line build-out, which was favored by greens, lawmakers, and major investors alike.
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Bill Benefiting Texas Wind Farms Generates Opposition
Dave Michaels of The Dallas Morning News reports
11/8/07: A provision in the national energy bill that has been stalled by Texas' two senators would probably boost the market for one of the state's fastest-growing sources of power: wind.
The renewable electricity standard – based on laws passed by many states, including Texas – would require that utilities obtain 15 percent of their power from wind, solar energy and other low- or zero-emission resources. Power companies that couldn't meet the standard would purchase renewable energy credits from companies that have a surplus of green energy.
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Texas Tackling Wind-Power Transmission
Vicki Vaughan of The Express-News Business Writer reports
9/1/07: Texas, once famed for its outrageously ample supply of black gold, stunned the energy world last year when it surpassed California as the nation's biggest generator of wind power for electricity.
This year, the state's excitement over wind power hasn't blown cold. Texas now has almost 3,000 megawatts of wind power in production with another 1,700 megawatts planned by 2008.
Although wind power now supplies just a fraction of the electricity going to the Texas electric grid, the industry is attracting big investors, with units of Royal Dutch Shell and TXU Corp. pairing up to build a giant wind farm, only to be outdone by billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, who's planning the world's largest collection of wind turbines in the Panhandle.
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Energy Efficiency Awakening at Capitol
Daniel Mottola of The Austin Chronicle reports
03/16/07: Across the state, the ongoing war over various utilities' plans to build new coal-fired power plants has led to a higher consciousness about how energy is generated and consumed. Now, with predictions that the state's energy reserve margins will fall short by the 2008 summer peak season, many question whether new coal plants are a logical response, considering their disproportionate contributions to global warming, smog, ozone, and mercury pollution; that none could be operational before 2009; and, most of all, that new data continues to emerge in support of Texas' ability to meet its growing energy needs by using electricity more efficiently and by better tapping our renewable resources. State legislators from both parties have responded by filing a bevy of bills to effect such changes.
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