Mesa Power LLP, a company created by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, has placed an order with General Electric (NYSE: GE) to purchase 667 wind turbines capable of generating 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power more than 300,000 average U.S. homes.
The turbines will be used in the first phase of the planned four-phase Pampa Wind Project that, if completed, will become the world’s largest wind energy project, with more than 4,000 MW of electricity, enough for 1.3 million homes.
When all phases of the project are completed as projected in 2014, the wind farm will be five times as big as the nation’s current largest wind power project, now producing 736 megawatts.
Pickens said he expects that first phase of the project will cost about $2 billion, and that electricity from the project will be on-line by early 2011. When complete, the Pampa Wind Project will cover some 400,000 acres in the Texas Panhandle.
GE is to deliver the 1.5-MW wind turbines in 2010 and 2011.
Mesa Power is hopeful that the Pampa Wind Project will qualify for the Federal Production Tax Credits in 2010 and 2011 when the project will begin commercial operations. "I believe that Congress will recognize that it is critical not only to this project, but to renewable energy in this country, that they enact a long-term extension of the Production Tax Credits," Pickens said.
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