In the last post, I showed you two pictures of wind farms and asked you to identify where these wind farms were located.
Here are the photos:
These photos were taken near Amarillo, Texas. If you skip the politics of wind power (are these turbines truly harmful to birds and other wild life?), here are some other interesting statistics about wind power in Texas:
- U.S. generated wind power is second only to China in the harnessing of wind for electricity generation
- There are over 40 different wind power projects in Texas alone
- Texas produces more wind power than any other U.S. state; second high producer is Iowa
- Wind power accounts for 6.9 percent of electricity generated in Texas in 2011
- Wind farms are located along a swath of land that runs from Amarillo to the north, south through Lubbock, Fluvanna, Snyder, Sweetwater and Abilene.
- To help with the capture of the wind power, many of the turbines are located atop mesas and buttes that are abundant in West Texas (actually, there are so many of these suckers, that if the turbines were Indians and I was a cavalryman, I’d be very, very worried).
For additional statistics about wind power in Texas go to Wikipedia and search “Wind power in Texas.”
fighting damien 
June 4, 2012 at 4:20 PM
Shouldn’t these be built near Austin? The hot air from the Ledge alone could run the state for years!
June 4, 2012 at 5:33 PM
I’m surprised that there aren’t wind turbines built on the balconies of every government building in every state of the union. Yes, there is more hot air in politics than perhaps all the wind blowing down the plains. You have an excellent point, as always, Dave.
June 5, 2012 at 6:18 AM
One thing those Wind Turbine Building Geniuses forgot was how to get all that Generated Energy to the Big Cities like Dallas, Fort Worth & Austin. I am now monitoring the schedules & spending on a huge effort to construct Transmission Lines from West Texas so people can benefit from those Turbines. Of course this is not cheap with the biggest cost being Right Of Way Acquisition. Not a lot of people want Towers with wires running through them in their backyard or their thousand acre spreads, but they would consider it for a 500% above value price tag. Greed is alive and doing well in West Texas!
June 5, 2012 at 8:49 AM
That is really cool information to know, Rich. The stats sound impressive, but I know it’s hard work creating those turbines and moving the energy around. I should point out that you work for Oncor in Ft. Worth.