Pickens Places Order With GE For 667 Wind Turbines For Panhandle Farm - DMN

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T. Boone Pickens has placed a massive order for wind turbines with General Electric, a big step toward building the world's largest wind farm in the Panhandle. Mr. Pickens' company, Mesa Power LLP, plans to announce today that it ordered 667 turbines from GE for about $2 billion.

That will produce 1,000 megawatts of power, more than the average nuclear power plant, and enough juice to light 300,000 homes. And it's just a quarter of the turbines that the legendary oilman plans to erect near his ranch in Pampa. By 2014, Mr. Pickens wants to have 4,000 megawatts of windmills turning in a $10 billion to $12 billion project. "We want to make Pampa the wind capital of the world," Mr. Pickens said. He's leased land in Carson, Gray, Hemphill, Roberts and Wheeler counties for the project.

But he faces one knotty problem: Moving the power from the rural Panhandle to populous North Texas. Mr. Pickens has a novel solution. Texas has more wind power than any other state, with 6,903 megawatts. But wind capacity has grown faster than the transmission lines to accommodate the power.

The Public Utility Commission is in the process of ordering transmission lines to accommodate new wind power. Commissioners could designate a line to Pampa, even though the wind farm would sit outside of the Texas grid, operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. If they don't, Mr. Pickens said, he'll just build his own private transmission line.

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