Floyd County wind farm gets major boost 

The prospects of Floyd County wind energy got a big boost earlier this week.

Tri Global Energy announced Monday that it has entered into a joint development agreement with Floyd County Wind Farm and Westerly Wind, and closed on the initial funding to form South Plains Wind Energy.

The newly-formed South Plains Wind Energy will receive initial development funding from Westerly Wind to accelerate the development of a wind farm project in Floyd County. The project is a landowner/community investor model owned jointly by Floyd County Wind Farm and Westerly Wind, and managed jointly by Tri Global Energy and Westerly Wind.

“Our landowners and community investors who provided seed money to initiate the wind farm with Tri Global Energy are pleased with the involvement of Westerly Wind,” said local Realtor and Floyd County landowner Keith Billington. “Their financial support and industry know-how are sure to accelerate the development of the project. Our wind farm and others like it will benefit West Texas with much-needed new jobs and a wider tax base.”

The project is located adjacent to the new Competitive Renewal Energy Zone (CREZ) transmission lines now under construction and scheduled to be complete in 2013. The multi-billion dollar transmission lines project will significantly increase the capacity of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid to support additional wind power generated in West Texas.

The CREZ lines are projected to support an increase from 10,000 megawatts to more than 18,000 megawatts of installed capacity as more wind farms are added to the grid. The South Plains Wind Energy farm will be capable of generating up to 500 megawatts when fully developed.

According to Westerly Wind CEO Joe Cofelice, “The South Plains Wind project is well positioned to take full advantage of the construction of CREZ transmission lines and we look forward to advancing development of this project with Floyd County Wind and Tri Global Energy. The continued support of the State of Texas for the development of new wind energy projects was a major driver in our decision to join forces with our partners to advance the South Plains project.”

Because of the excellent and sustainable wind resources available in this region of Texas, Tri Global Energy president Tom Carbone foresees more landowner/community investor wind farms in the future for rural West Texas.

Carbone believes advancements in turbine technology coupled with increased competition in supply chain management may result in lower capital costs and increased return on investment, which will continue to make wind farms attractive to investors.

Tri Global Energy is developing 13 utility-scale community wind power projects throughout West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, representing approximately 600,000 acres of wind resource sites. Several are in the late stages of development that include the completion of wind resource studies and permitting.

Experts have identified Tri Global Energy wind power projects as having some of the best wind resources in the U.S. Tri Global projects are also near the geographic intersection of three major transmission interconnections that serve customers across the country.