WHAT MADE TEXAS A WIND POWER

How Conservative Texas Took The Lead in U.S. Wind Power

Roger Real Drouin, 9 April 2015 (Yale Environment 360)

“…In 2014, wind generated 10.6 percent of Texas electricity, up from 9.9 percent the previous year and 6.2 percent in 2009…Wind energy generation that falls under the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the grid for 24 million Texans, nearly doubled from 2009 to 2014. Currently, Texas has more than 12 gigawatts of wind power capacity installed across the state — equitarget="_blank"valent to six Hoover Dams. That figure could jump to 20 gigawatts in a few years…Strong government incentives, sizeable investments in infrastructure, and innovative policies have played an important role. So has the backing of governors of all political persuasions, from liberal Democrat Ann Richards to conservative Republican Rick Perry. But at heart the profit motive has driven the state’s wind energy boom, with ranchers and landowners seeing gold in the spinning turbines…A major leap forward for Texas’ wind industry came in 2005 when Governor Perry and the state legislature approved the $7 billion Competitive Renewable Energy Zone initiative, a 3,600-mile network of transmission lines. The project made it possible to move the electricity from the wind farms in West Texas and the panhandle to the bigger markets…Today, the wind energy industry is eyeing expansion along the state’s coast and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico…” click here for more

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