This story just in from the Austin American-Statesman has so many elements that I'd like to question that I don't know where to begin. Probably best just to post the whole thing.
Austin-based Cielo Wind Power said today it will partner with Chinese and American companies to build one of the biggest wind farms in the United States. The project will cost $1.5 billion, cover 36,000 acres in West Texas and generate 600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 180,000 homes.
A project of that size “will be one of the largest undertakings of its kind anywhere in the world,” Cielo CEO Walt Hornaday said in a statement.
Chinese banks are expected to finance the project, and Chinese companies will manufacture the 240 turbines for the wind farm. Shenyang Power Group is the Chinese entity involved in the project. The U.S. Renewable Energy Group also is a partner in the project.
UPDATE: In a telephone interview from Washington, where a press conference took place to announce the plan, Hornaday said the project is hoping to attract $450 million in U.S. stimulus funding, which is 30 percent of the project’s capital costs. To qualify, the project must begin in earnest by 2010 and be complete by the end of 2012.
Hornaday said he project is expected to start in March and completed as early as March 2011. The specific West Texas site for the wind farm likely won’t be announced until early next year, as the groups nail down specifics on the site’s proximity to new transmission lines. Hornaday said the project especially came together thanks to a transmission line project that is already underway under a Texas Public Utility Commission plan. The stimulus funds, plus Chinese investment, were also significant drivers to pulling the deal together, he said. Shenyang Power Group, Cielo Wind and U.S. Renewable Energy Group will be the owners of the project.
