Ireland - Irish company to build wind farm in Texas

An Irish company says it will spend $270 million to build wind farms in West Texas, New York and Idaho, hoping to take advantage of rising prices for electricity generated with natural gas and other fuels. Airtricity says it has agreements with landowners to construct turbines on 23,000 acres between Amarillo and Lubbock by the end of next year. The wind farm would produce enough power for more than 75,000 homes, said the company's managing director, Eddie O'Connor. He said Airtricity was drawn to Texas by the growing population, which will require additional power plants, plus less regulation than power companies face elsewhere. "And there are cracking big winds," he added. "The wind is going to blow forever." O'Connor was scheduled to announce the plans Friday at a renewable-energy conference in New York.

Many recent power plants in Texas burn natural gas, which has jumped in price over the past several years. Airtricity believes that is finally making wind energy competitive. Airtricity claims to have 40,000 commercial customers in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It reported earning 2.8 million Euros ($3.4 million) on revenue of 127 million Euros (about $152 million) last year. In Texas, the small Irish company would be competing against much larger homegrown rivals such as TXU Corp. and Reliant Energy Inc. for commercial and residential customers. Nor will the Irish company be the first to woo Texas consumers with the promise of environmentally benign electricity. Austin-based Green Mountain Energy, which sells wind and hydroelectric power, has been in Texas more than three years. It won't say how many customers it has in Texas but claims to have added more than 50 percent from a year ago, partly by matching rates charged in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by TXU, the former monopoly utility. John Savage, Green Mountain's senior vice president of marketing, said he didn't regard Airtricity's plans as a threat. "You're seeing the creation of a category for clean electricity," he said. Airtricity's board has not approved plans to enter the Texas residential market, but O'Connor said he expected the board to do so.

O'Connor said Airtricity plans to build a 125-megawatt wind farm in West Texas. Local officials in eastern Idaho have approved plans for a 100-megawatt wind farm to be built by Airtricity and Ridgeline Energy. In upstate New York, Airtricity is still seeking permission for a 40-megawatt facility. O'Connor said the company raised more than $100 million in private equity last year and plans to borrow 90 percent of the money needed to buy and install wind turbines built by a subsidiary of Germany's Siemens AG and Spain's Gamesa. When consumers of self-styled green power companies turn on the lights, they get electricity from natural gas, coal and nuclear-fired plants too. Companies such as Airtricity and Green Mountain say they produce and add to the power pool enough clean energy to cover their customers' needs. Some traditional power companies are also getting into the renewables market. Dallas-based TXU says it is the fourth largest buyer of wind power in the country, and others own hydroelectric plants. Oil giant BP PLC is a major investor in Green Mountain Energy.