Over the next three years, wind farm development in Texas, estimated at 7,500 MW of new generation, will convert a number of towns into renewable energy hubs. In addition, new transmission lines now link five CREZ zones, which could eventually serve 16,000 MW of wind power from west Texas to more populated cities by 2016.
The next big Texas energy boom does not involve tight gas formations in the Barnett Shale, or deepwater oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. While fossil resources continue to draw high interest from energy developers and investors in the Lone Star State, Texas' hottest energy prospect is wind power in West Texas and the Panhandle.
That's where a new surge of wind farm development, estimated at 7,500 megawatts of new generation over the next three years, should convert once-sleepy places like Amarillo, Plainview and Lubbock into renewable energy boomtowns.