Green Leaf Report

About a year ago I spoke with a friend of a friend who works in renewable energy investments in Northern California.  He encouraged me to move to either US coast, because that’s where the innovations and investments were happening. I asked about all the start-ups in Austin, and he told me, no, nothing was really happening in Texas…it was primarily in California or on the East Coast.

So with that in mind, I’m glad to see the continuing coverage of the booming Texas wind industry. The Texas reputation may be that this is a state of conservative ranchers and businesses who think going green is a tree-hugging fad from leftover hippies, but the economic drivers for wind speak for themselves:

The wind turbines that recently went up on Louis Brooks’s ranch are twice as high as the Statue of Liberty, with blades that span as wide as the wingspan of a jumbo jet. More important from his point of view, he is paid $500 a month apiece to permit 78 of them on his land, with 76 more on the way.

When I read that paragraph about the amount to be made from leasing land to wind turbines, my first thought was that maybe I should buy myself an old, dry, country ranch west of Dallas.  I have friends who have bought large acreage for weekend getaways, but the mineral rights weren’t included in their purchase.  Who needs the mineral rights now? And with the population continuing to grow in major Texas cities, even if it’s very difficult to get this wind energy to the US coasts over long transmission lines, providing local energy is  a strong growth opportunity.

Texans are even turning tapped-out oil fields into wind farms, and no less an oilman than Boone Pickens is getting into alternative energy.

“I have the same feelings about wind,” Mr. Pickens said in an interview, “as I had about the best oil field I ever found.” He is planning to build the biggest wind farm in the world, a $10 billion behemoth that could power a small city by itself.

Wind turbines were once a marginal form of electrical generation. But amid rising concern about greenhouse gases from coal-burning power plants, wind power is booming. Installed wind capacity in the United States grew 45 percent last year, albeit from a small base, and a comparable increase is expected this year.

When Texas oilmen become converts, we can see the changes coming.