World's largest wind farm opens in Texas

Texan wind farm

E.ON's Climate and Renewables sector has the construction of the world's biggest wind farm by completing the final phase of its site in Roscoe, Texas, which now has a capacity of 781.5 megawatts.

The project, costing in excess of $1 billion, is located 200 miles (320km) west of Fort Worth and surpasses the nearby Horse Hollow wind farm, owned byFPL Group's NextEra Energy Resources, with a capacity of 735.5 MW, as the largest in the world.

Steve Trenholm, CEO of German-based E.ON AG's renewable unit in North America, said in a press release, "Completing the world's biggest wind farm took more than a $1 billion investment, coordination with more than 300 landowners and management of more than 500 workers."

Texas' wind power potential is well known within the industry, and became the leading state for wind capacity in 2006 with around 2,400 MW of capacity. This amount has now increased to 8335 MW, according to the state grid operator.

New power lines are under development that will allow wind developers to more than double the current amount of wind in Texas over the next few years, according to Reuters.

Wind power is enjoying a healthy surge in popularity in the US and across the world as, once constructed, it generates electricity without emitting carbon dioxide, whilst also helping the economy by creating plenty of jobs. Which is exactly what has happened for the economies of sparsely populated areas such as West Texas and the Texas Panhandle.

The Texan wind farm industry is expanding at an impressive rate, and will probably need to if federal carbon reducing regulations impact the oil industry as expected.

The Roscoe wind farm spans parts of four Texas counties and covers nearly 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares), several times the size of Manhattan, the company said. It has 627 turbines, manufactured by units of Mitsubishi, General Electric and Siemens.

E.ON Climate operates 2600 MW of generation worldwide, including 1488 MW in the US, mostly in Texas.

It recently completed the 458 MW Panther Creek wind farm near Big Spring, Texas, and will soon finish the 180 MW Papalote Creek wind farm near Corpus Christi.

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