The Coastal Bend Region Is Fast Becoming a Major Hub of Wind-Energy Activity
Published Oct 07, 2008
Mannti Cummins of American Shoreline says nine wind farms in the area could generate 3,000 megawatts of power.
What happens when some of the main oil- and gas-producing counties in Texas put their energy into developing clean, renewable sources of power? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the Coastal Texas wind.
Texas has emerged in recent years as the wind-energy capital of the United States. Until recently, the Coastal Bend’s sole involvement has been for the Port of Corpus Christi to receive the giant wind turbines arriving from manufacturers as far away as Denmark and destined for West Texas.
That’s changing. The region is now swept up in all aspects of the wind-energy revolution.
“You’re not going to see any hydro power projects around here,” notes Dick Messbarger, executive director of the Greater Kingsville Economic Development Council. But wind farms are another matter. “They are bringing lots of jobs to the surrounding communities,” Messbarger says. “It is a huge economic impact.”
Projects Spin Into Control
In 2007, wind energy capacity nationwide blew past previous levels by a whopping 45 percent. Among the 50 states, No. 1 Texas accounted for 4,446 megawatts of wind-energy capacity, more than a quarter of the nation’s total.
The Coastal Bend region soon will be adding to the numbers, big-time.
Two major wind farms under construction in Kenedy County, the $400 million, 84-turbine Penascal Wind Farm and the $800 million, 118-turbine Gulf Wind project, expect to turn out power as soon as November 2008.
Two existing transmission lines and a substation between the two farms will move the 485 megawatts they generate into the state’s electrical grid.
In Corpus Christi itself, Colorado-based Revolution Energy LLC hopes to take full advantage of the port by erecting up to 17 wind turbines along its Inner Harbor to catch the nearly perpetual sea breeze. The Harbor Sunrise Industrial Wind Power installation could produce about 35 megawatts, says Tibor Hegedus, general manager of Revolution Energy and a native of the city.
Other regional projects include the proposed Alta Mesa and Rio Vista wind farms slated to be built near Hebbronville. “We’re approaching a $2 billion investment,” says Mannti Cummins, wind project manager for Corpus Christi-based American Shoreline Inc., which has teamed with San Diego’s Eviva Spinnaker Energy for the two projects. “You can figure that 20 percent of that will go to local and regional contractors who will be doing the construction work. All the businesses in the area are going to benefit.”
Cummins estimates that approximately nine wind farms proposed and under construction within 100 miles of Corpus Christi, when built out over the next five to six years, will generate 3,000 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 825,000 homes.
And that’s not to mention wind energy’s long-term economic benefits, positive environmental impact, price stability and U.S. energy security.
Manufacturing Could Be Next
More evidence of the Coastal Bend’s emergence as a wind-energy center is found at Ingleside on the Bay, where a $20 million wind-energy research and blade-testing facility - the world’s largest - is slated for a fall 2009 opening. Economic development professionals say the testing center is likely to draw manufacturers to the region.
“With only two such facilities in the nation, with our port as a major handler of blade importing and with the current actual building of the wind towers in our area, I see this industry growing in much the same way as the offshore fabrication industry has,” says Josephine W. Miller, executive director of the San Patricio Economic Development Corp.
“We have already proven that we know how to build big things and how to move them,” Miller says, “so, yes, this industry has great potential for this part of Texas.”
Story by Carol Cowan
Photo by Jesse Knish
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