Connect me with those wide open spaces...

Implications: Texas is the number one wind power state in the US.  Its present inventory of over 3,000 MW can grow exponentially if there were major transmission access to the wind-rich West Panhandle.  The announcement by an FPL Energy unit could make this a near term reality.

Analysis: Texas has leaped into first place in wind power in the US, passing California last year with 2,749 megawatts (MW) of capacity.  According to the American Wind Energy Association, 3,150 MW has been installed as of May 15, 2007.  This is but a pittance of Texas' potential, unlike California, whose potential is restricted to mountain passes, some of the southern desert and the coast. 

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates Texas' potential as commercially feasible to supply not only the state's electricity consumption, but to exceed up to four times that amount.  The self-sufficiency alone can be achieved with Class 4 winds, which predominate in the northern part of the state.  But the really wind-rich territories are the Class 5 and 6 areas in the West Panhandle.  Three hundred square kilometers of Class 6 and 5,000 of Class 5 can supply over a fifth of the Lone Star State's juice.

But that part of the country lacks significant high voltage transmission to tap this resource.  The announcement by a unit of FPL Energy LLC, one of the largest green power developers in the US, to develop a transmission line, is good news for the wind power industry.  This can give rise to wind farms that can not only achieve 40% capacity (at Class 6), but also a run time of 80-90% (6,500 to 7,500 hours a year when some wind powered electricity would be available).  Accessing this wind resource can mean the installation of tens of thousands of MW of wind turbines that would provide reliable electricity to the electricity thirsty metropolitan areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and other Texas cities.