T. Boone Pickens: Kicking Off the World's Largest Wind Farm
Our favorite oil-baron-turned-wind-power-wildcatter, T. Boone Pickens, will make the first down payment this month on 500 wind turbines for his plan to build the world’s largest wind farm in Texas, says the Guardian. Over the next four years, Pickens plans to build 2,700 wind turbines that would supply 4,000 megawatts — enough to power 1 million homes.
It’s interesting that Pickens tells the Guardian that the wind farm will cost $10 billion to build, because we’ve previously heard figures closer to $6 billion (via the WSJ). Perhaps Pickens underestimated the cost last year. As we pointed out in February, the cost of the raw materials to build turbines, as well as demand for turbines themselves, have been lifting the upfront costs of building wind farms.
And the costs of building Texas’ transmission lines, to move the power from the farms to more populated areas, has been adding up, too. The state could spend anywhere between $2.95 billion and $6.38 billion on laying new lines, according to a recent report.
But Texas and its entrepreneurs like Pickens are willing to make the investment. The state leads the nation in wind power and is building a booming industry off of the renewable energy technology. Texas not only has large stretches of windswept rural plains, but it has the kind of regulatory atmosphere that can fast-track wind projects.
The farmers who own that windswept land can also make significant money off the farms. A New York Times story mentioned a farmer that makes $500 a month for each wind turbine on his property. Pickens tells the Guardian he’s paying $10,000 and $20,000 in annual royalties for every turbine farmers allowed on their land.
And it’s becoming a point of pride for Texas — Jerry Patterson, the Texas land commissioner, told the NYT, “We’re No. 1 in wind in the United States, and that will never change.”
Here’s more coverage of the imitable T. Boone Pickens:
- Boone on Bush: “Too Focused on Ethanol”
- T. Boone Launches “Pickens Plan” to Save U.S.
- T. Boone Pickens Taps Water & Wind For Land Grab
- Cost Estimates of T. Boone’s Colossal Wind Farm Keep Rising
- T. Boone Pickens Orders $2B of Wind Turbines
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No matter how many time I see this guy’s name, it never ceases to amaze and delight me. He’ll make a perfect evil alternative energy overlord.
Maybe he’s using Euro wind generators and finally figuring in the crappy USD$. That would even raise the price on imported earthworms.
The rise in the cost of materials is affecting all energy sources (as is the simultaneous rise in the cost of fuels, although wind is fuel-free so not directly affected by that).
News reports on the cost of transmission lines in Texas didn’t quite capture the full story. See http://www.awea.org/newsroom/pdf/Texas_Study_Transmission.pdf for a different view.
Regards,
Tom Gray
American Wind Energy Association
http://www.awea.org
http://www.powerofwind.org
ggsgsg
Be sure to remember your high praise for Mr. Pickens when drinking water is rationed, you are subsisting on soylent green, and the entire Midwest is a desert.
T Boon;
I think your awesome! I also think you should look at the EBM generator at my provided web site. It will work even without wind, Go Pokes!
Robert A. Morris
I live just East of Snyder Texas. I am a retired teacher. My sister and I own a farm just north of Sweetwater. How do we get the windmills on the farm??????????????????????????????
Have 4000 Acres in West Texas ….lets talk..investment!
678-314-9551
I live in Atlanta GA.
Plan to Help the USA! Please read.
Reduce demand and the price will fall! Even one year of this plan will result in huge benefits for America.
This plan would have a greater impact if implemented nationwide. Please consider and share with our legislators.
Enough is enough it is time to take action on fuel prices. There is something that can be done that will save millions of gallons of fuel daily without sacrificing anything. The only thing that we will need to do to make that happen is for a small percentage of our population to make a minor change in their work schedule.
The plan:
Change the school week to a four day week by increasing each of the remaining four days by 2 hours of class time each day. This will provide the students with the same amount of instructional time and in most schools even an additional 30 minutes of instructional time.
Results:
All school buses travel will be reduced by 20% as well as the diesel usage for the entire fleet of school buses will be reduced by 20%. Just think how much diesel fuel will be saved each week. The students will still get the same amount of instructional time.
Possible residual benefits:
Students will have a full day to work on homework, special research projects, and reports rather than dividing each evening into small blocks of time.
Many parents will not need the before/after school care because the student work day will be more in line with the standard 8 hour work day of their parents. (This will further reduce transportation needs to daycare each day.)
Parents who have young children in before school care/after school care already have caretakers available for short school weeks, holidays, and school vacations. High school students could earn extra money by assisting day care facilities with part-time help needed for the extra day of child care.
Students who need special tutoring will be able to devote a full day to the tutoring. (This could happen by having older students tutor younger students at neighborhood community centers, churches and day care facilities.)
In addition, emissions from the school buses will be reduced by 20% if they operate one day a week less.
Schools strapped for funding will be able to save on fuel expense. That savings could be used to fund the class size reduction, materials and even additional tutors.
No employees will need to be cut or reduced due to the lost day. Current qualified classified employees (food service workers, bus drivers, etc.) will be assigned to an ESE teacher or an inclusion teacher to provide tutoring or assistance to special needs students one day or a certain number of hours a week to make up the time so that will not need to sacrifice pay. This will also enhance academic assistance for our special needs students.
No employees will need to be cut or reduced due to the lost day. Current qualified classified employees (food service workers, bus drivers, etc.) could serve as aides, substitutes, media center assistants and other service related jobs during the extra hours to make up for the hours of service.
Staff development may take place during the extra day so that teachers do not need to leave classes for professional development activities.
In the 1970s America immediately responded to the increase in fuel prices and took action to reduce consumption by reducing the speed limit on the highways to 55mph and by changing to daylight savings time. This plan will be even less expensive to implement because we will not need to change speed limit signs which is labor intensive. Schools are currently beginning to plan the calendar for the next school year. It is now time to take action and help save our economy and help save our planet. Be a hero, TAKE ACTION NOW!
Thank you for taking time to consider this plan.
How can we see if the people will support this?
How can we survey people?
I also believe that people who can afford solar and wind power should invest in it.
If you divide 10 billion dollars by 1 million people you get 10,000 per person? How is this going help everyone long term? It will tank the economy faster than you can say Petroleum. I think the current Nuclear and oil/gas just needs to be able to drill and operate more freely like the rest of the world. Americans are dark ages in terms of energy. They a lack the ability to be able to address practical ways ot use current known energy.