Pickens' Panhandle wind project orders 667 turbines

Mesa Power, controlled by billionaire investor Boone Pickens, ordered 667 wind turbines from General Electric Co. to begin a $10 billion wind-farm project in Texas that will be the nation's largest.

Delivery of the equipment will begin in mid-2010, Dallas-based Mesa said today in a statement. When completed in 2014, the Pampa Wind Project in northern Texas will be capable of producing 4,000 megawatts, the company said. That's enough power for about 1.2 million average U.S. homes.

Abundant wind, open land, federal tax credits and rising electricity prices have made Texas the largest U.S. producer of electricity from wind. Mesa's Pampa Wind Project would almost double that generating capacity. Royal Dutch Shell Plc has proposed a 3,000-megawatt wind project in the state.

``Such gigawatt-size projects are evidence of the strong interest in investing in wind power, to take advantage of vast, windy land in the U.S.,'' Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based American Wind Energy Association, said in an e-mail.

The wind turbines ordered from GE for the $2 billion first phase of the Pampa Wind Project will be capable of producing a total of 1,000 megawatts, Mesa said. A megawatt of wind-power is enough for 300 average U.S. homes, according to the association.

Mesa has yet to obtain rights-of-way for a $2 billion power line that will deliver the wind-farm's output to the Texas power grid, Pickens said an interview on CNBC. The farm will be constructed on leased property in Carson, Gray, Hemphill, Roberts and Wheeler counties, where landowners will receive annual royalties, Mesa said.

``We've had a great response to this project,'' Pickens said in the statement. ``Landowners and local officials understand the economic benefits.''

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