El Paso County TX Wind Farm, Hueco Mountain
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
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Located near the Hueco Mountains east of Horizon City, about 35 miles from the City of El Paso’s downtown district is a wind farm, El Paso Electric’s Hueco Mountain Wind Ranch. The first wind energy generating project in El Paso County. Resulting from customer suggestions that EPE acquire renewable resources and give customers the opportunity to voluntarily select renewable energy as a power source.
The EPE Hueco Wind Ranch has two 660 kilowatt V-47 Vestas wind turbines. These Vestas turbines have 77-ft.-long rotor blades (154 ft. diameter) mounted on 213-ft. towers. Built in Denmark, the turbines were shipped to the U.S. in January 2001. The top two sections of the three section towers were constructed at Bergen Steel of Canutillo, Texas, and the bottom section was built in Utah.
The vestas 660kW wind turbines are expected to eventually generate approximately 3,000,000 kWh of electricity a year, which is equivalent to the energy needed to power approximately 500 average El Paso households. Wind turbines in this area will generate the most energy during the winter and spring months.
Cielo Wind Power LLC was selected in January 2000 to develop this wind energy project at an approximate cost of $2.2 million. In December 2000, EPE contracted with Cielo Wind Power LLC to build the wind project and perform operations and maintenance services. Construction on the project began in late December 2000. This project serves as another example of profitable use of wind turbine technology.
Wind turbines do not generate any emissions to air or water and do not produce hazardous waste. Wind turbines don’t deplete natural resources such as coal, oil, or gas, or cause environmental damage through resource extraction and transportation. The pollution-free electricity generated by wind turbine technology is helping to reduce the environmental pollution in the U.S. and worldwide.
Today, Texas is the leading producer of clean renewable wind power. Texas has 4,112 megawatts of wind generation capacity as a result of their leadership and vision in wind energy since 1995. Today Texas wind energy projects are moving forward at a tremendous rate with another 1,478 MW of capacity under construction and 8,012 MW planned and announced. No other state has more deployed wind energy than the Lone Star state and at this rate, no-one will catch them either.
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