“Texas isn’t a leader in wind because oil is bad, because gas is bad or because coal is bad,” Miller says.
In fact, it’s the experience in promoting and regulating the production of those fuels that created the opportunity for growth of the 21st century wind industry.
“Texas is a leader in renewable energy because we had the regulatory environment and the transmission infrastructure in place,” he says.
Ideas on the drawing board quickly become operating wind farms, and the electricity generated there easily finds its way to light switches across the state.
Today, Texas is home to the world’s largest wind farm, the Roscoe Wind Farm west of Dallas, which produces 781 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 230,000 homes. Its 627 towers cover an area the size of Manhattan. In fact, five of the 10 largest wind farms in the United States are in Texas – Roscoe, the 736-megawatt Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, the 662- megawatt Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm, the 585- megawatt Sweetwater Wind Farm and the 524- megawatt Buffalo Gap Wind Farm.
Benefits From Offshore Oil, Gas
More wind power is on the way, including the 300- megawatt Coastal Point offshore wind project near Galveston, which represents a $720 million investment and capitalizes on the company’s long association with the offshore oil and gas industry. The project’s Gulf Coast location gives it another advantage. It is at the hub of the U.S. offshore oil and gas platform construction industry, which Coastal Point has put to work building its own offshore wind towers.
The wind industry does more than create power; it creates jobs.
