Learn from this terrible waste of investor money (and, Rob, I have to agree, sacrifice of Texas countryside). Wind “farms” with capacity factors under 40% take 50,000 acres and hundreds of miles of lines to do what a single 1000MW nuclear plant can do in 500 acres with a 90%+ capacity factor.

Once he announced his plan to build the huge wind farms in west Texas, he began plotting a route that would take energy produced by those farms to San Antonio and Austin. The route he selected happened to dissect the Hill Country, a historic region of Texas known for its natural beauty. Contracting with Flroida Power and Light, Pickens sent his minions to scout out possible land deals for the massive power lines. Unfortunately, said minions found ranchers eager to make quick money from the sale of easement land, even though the land would still be tied up in perpetuity if Pickens decided not to go forward. Well, of course he didn’t go foward, and thousands of acres in the Hill Country now look like the surface of the moon. Three-hundred-year-old oaks have been destroyed to make way for those hideous power lines that will now sit there doing nothing, like Alaska’s bridge to nowhere. Unless, of course, Pickens can fob the whole project off on the Texas Public Utility Commission – which may have been his plan all along.