Texas plans to blow itself green

William Atkins
Tuesday, 22 July 2008 21:01

Science - Energy

Initially, however, Texas electrical customers will pay an extra $4 per month to develop the project.

Currently, according to the AP article, Texas generates approximately 5,000 megawatts of wind power, but will raise that level to 18,000 megawatts upon completion of the wind-power project.

However, Tom Smith, Texas director of the consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, said, “We think it’s going to lower costs, lower pollution and create jobs. We think that for every $3 invested, we’ll probably see about an $8 reduction in electric costs” [The New York Times: “Texas Approves a $4.93 Billion Wind-Power Project”]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas stated in the AP article that, “one megawatt of power provides enough electricity for 500 to 700 average homes under normal conditions in Texas, or about 200 homes during hot weather.”

Therefore, upon completion of the project, wind power will provide electricity to about 9 to 12.6 million Texan homes, on a cool day in Texas, but more realistically 3.6 million homes on those hot and steamy days in Texas.

State representative Mark Strama was quoted in the AP article to have said, "The capacity for wind generation in west and north Texas is so great that we could position ourselves in Texas to be the world leader in wind and renewable energy in the next 100 years, just as we were the world leader in oil and gas for the past 100 years.”

Check out some of the “Texas Renewable Energy Projects” currently in Texas at InfinitePower.org.

According to The New York Times article, wind power provides for about 1% of the country’s electrical power generation, but “… could rise to 20 percent by 2030, according to a recent Department of Energy report, if transmission lines are built and other challenges met.”